


A Titanic Love

by theycallmesuperboy



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Titanic (1997)
Genre: Angst, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 21:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theycallmesuperboy/pseuds/theycallmesuperboy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was...<i></i></i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>
    <i>Jim looked up, and said, eyes sparkling, "His name was Leonard. Leonard McCoy. And I loved him."</i>
  </i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>
    
  </i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>
    <i>Titanic AU</i>
  </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Titanic Love

**Author's Note:**

> I've been in love with the story of the Titanic- the ship, not just the movie- since I was little. It was just... the greatest story of all time. I've seen the movie SO many times. The last time I saw it, before writing this, was when it was re-released to theaters for the 100th Anniversary. My friend Connor and I were going to go see Act of Valor, except the weekend we planned on seeing it, it was out of theaters, so we went and watched Titanic instead. Completely coincidentally, we ended up seeing the movie on the night it sank, exactly 100 years later. 
> 
> You don't need to have seen the movie to understand it, if you're wondering. Although, um, honestly I don't know anyone who /hasn't/ seen this movie, it's a classic. So if you haven't please rectify the situation immediately. 
> 
> ALSO: I promise it's not all in italics, I just had to separate the parts that were in the future from when he was aboard the Titanic. 
> 
> Thanks again to Sav, my awesome beta who got sad over this first and made sure none of you would be distracted from your sadness by my grammar mistakes.

In 1997, the wreckage of the RMS Titanic was searched by a research team. The team made several trips down to the wreckage, and on trip number six, they sent their robot down into the wreckage to recover artifacts, and hopefully, the Heart of the Ocean, the largest blue diamond known to man. It was lost when the Titanic took her one, and only, voyage. The diamond necklace belonged to Admiral Marcus, who was on the voyage, but was loaned out to his daughter's fiancé, to be given to his daughter as a present for their wedding.

In search of the diamond, the team recovered the safe from the Marcus' room. However, they found only paper in the safe. One of those pieces of paper contained a drawing of a young man, who was wearing the diamond. The drawing was dated the night the Titanic sank.

\---

_A scruffy little dog jumped around the ankles of a pretty young woman, who was setting breakfast on the table as the news was playing on the little television set of her grandfather's home. The woman, Joanna Kirk, passed her grandfather on the way back into the kitchen to feed her dog._

_Jim Kirk, a very old man with curly white hair and a round belly, was sitting in his sunroom, surrounded by pictures of his family and exciting life- flying, meeting the president, climbing mountains. He was working on the pottery wheel when he heard the woman on the news say, "-the most famous shipwreck of all, the Titanic. He is with us, live, via satellite, from the research ship the Kelvin, positioned in the North Atlantic. Hello, Brock-"_

_"Hello Tracy!" the man's tinny voice boomed, "Of course everyone knows the familiar story of the Titanic, you know the nobility, the band playing till the very end, and all that, but what I'm interested in are the untold stories. The secrets locked deep inside the hull of Titanic."_

_Jim lifted his head, tuning into what the man on the television was saying. He was old- over a hundred years old- but he still possessed the sharp intellect and hearing that he did when he was twenty-five. He did need a little help with his vision, though, and picked up a pair of antique reading glasses his granddaughter had bought him for his last birthday. He’d chuckled and said that he liked them because they were even older than he was, and she’d kissed the top of his head, and said that he only liked them because she’d bought them and he was allergic to contact lenses._

_"We're out here using robot technology," the man continued, "to go further into the wreck than anybody's ever gone before." Jim pulled himself up, grabbing a hold of his cane, and slowly hobbled into the kitchen from the adjoining sunroom._

_"Your expedition is at the center of a storm of controversy over salvage lines, and many are calling you a grave robber," the female reporter said._

_Jo had already finished feeding the dog and was working on fixing herself breakfast when she noticed her grandfather had gotten up by himself, and was stepping closer to the television._

_"Well nobody ever called the recovery of the artifacts-" the man on television said, but his voice was drowned out by Joanna's, as she stepped out of the kitchen to aid her grandfather. Jo was the spitting image of her grandmother, who'd passed away several years previously, with her long blonde hair and pretty blue eyes, but she hardly looked anything like her father, David. She was staying with her grandfather while attending medical school, so she could take care of him and have a place to stay while in college._

_"What is it?" she asked, stepping out of the little kitchen area and looking at him with concerned eyes._

_"Turn that up, dear," Jim said distractedly, stepping closer to the little television screen and squinting._

_"I have museum-trained experts out here making sure that these relics are preserved and cataloged properly. Take a look at this drawing that we found just today," the man said. The camera zoomed in on a tub of water, showing a naked young man, wearing only the blue diamond necklace. "A piece of paper that has been underwater for eighty years, and my team was able to preserve it, intact." The paper was yellowed with age, with little mud or stains on the corners, and the edges were tapered, but the charcoal and the paper had been preserved remarkably well._

_Jim had hunched over, watching the screen closely, narrowing his eyes. His granddaughter was standing behind him, watching the screen with interest._

_"It would have remained unseen at the bottom of the ocean for eternity, and we can see-" the man continued._

_Jim's eyes widened, staring at the man's face in the picture, and he said, "I'll be goddamned."_

\---

_Aboard the Kelvin, Bobby Buell ran up to the head of the expedition, and said, "Brock, there's a satellite call for you!"_

_Brock Lovett turned and said,  "Bobby, we're launching. You see these submersibles going in the water?"_

_"Trust me, buddy, you_ wanna _take this call," he said, thumbing over his shoulder._

_Brock paused, "This better be good," then followed the man._

_"You gotta speak up, he's kinda old!"_

_"Great," he grunted, and took the satellite phone from the man's outstretched hand. "This is Brock Lovett, how may I help you Mr.-" he put his hand over the microphone, leaning towards the other man._

_The man said, "Kirk, James T Kirk."_

_"Mr. Kirk."_

_"I was just wondering if you had found the Heart of the Ocean yet, Mr. Lovett," Jim said with almost a chuckle._

_Brock turned to his friend with wide eyes, who looked smug, and said, "Told you you wanted to take the call."_

_He leaned on the side of the ship's railing, and said, "Alright, you have my attention, James. Can you tell us who the man in the picture is?"_

_"Oh yes, the man in the picture is me."_

\---

_"There's no way that James Kirk knows anything about that diamond!" Bodine, one of Lovett's men, said, watching Mir 2 being swung over the side of the ship to start a dive._

_"They're inbound," Buell said. Lovett nodded, and the three of them started towards the upper decks to meet the approaching helicopter._

_"He says he's James T. Kirk, right? That I'll believe. He's got to be over a hundred by now, nothing he says is credible!"_

_"A hundred and one."_

_"Okay, so he's a really old guy. I looked him up- Kirk made it off the Titanic at the age of eighteen, and married Admiral Marcus' daughter, moved to Iowa, and they had a kid. But they reported it missing- thousands of things went down with the ship, and thousands were worn off of it by rich women. Why would they have lied about that? It was the family's prized possession! Now the Admiral's daughter is dead, and from what I've heard, Iowa is dead!"_

_"So is everyone else who's supposed to know about the diamond. He's one of the few men to have made it off the Titanic, and he's actually held the thing, and I want to hear what he has to say about it. Got it?" he said, turning back to the helipad and shielding his eyes from the sun and wind._

_The helicopter landed on the deck of the Kelvin, and men started to unload the baggage. there were at least six suitcases being piled in front of them on the deck, and they all appeared to be part of a matching set. Bodine muttered, "Doesn't travel light, does he?" before wandering off._

_The men finished unloading Jim's luggage- old fashioned suitcases, older than Joanna- and two of them lifted Jim's wheelchair down, with Jo's dog in his lap. Lovett ran up to him, and said, "Mr. Kirk! I'm Brock Lovett," holding out his hand._

_Jim took it, shaking the man's hand, but said, "I know who you are." Joanna hopped out of the helicopter herself, brushing off offers of help from the men. She made the men step aside to push her grandfather, as Brock stood back and watched her with something akin to amazement._

\---

_Joanna was unpacking her grandfather's things in the little stateroom they'd been assigned, as Jim was placing a few of his favorite framed photographs along the nightstand. Brock and Bodine stood in the doorway, until Brock asked, "Is your stateroom alright?"_

_"Oh yes," he said, looking up, "Have you met my granddaughter, Joanna? She takes care of me," he patted her shoulder, and she smiled at him._

_"Yes, we just met, Papa. Remember up on deck?" she said, briefly meeting eyes with Brock._

_He looked flustered for a moment, saying, "Oh yes."_

_The two younger men exchanged glances, before Jim finished arranging the photographs. Brock said, "Is there anything you would like?"_

_Jim looked up at him, and said, "Yes. I would like to see my drawing."_

\---

_Jim peered into the tub of water, over the drawing of himself when he was only eighteen. At the bottom of the page, a messy signature was scrawled, but Jim could still make it out. He would remember that scrawl, that name, till the day he died. McCoy. He closed his eyes briefly, remembering that night- the soft scratches made by the piece of charcoal against the paper, dark eyes glancing at him over the top of the pad._

_His thoughts were interrupted by Brock, who was telling the story of the diamond. "Louis the Sixteenth wore a fabulous stone, called the Blue Diamond of the Crown, which disappeared in 1792, about the time Louis lost everything from the neck up. The theory goes that the crown diamond was chopped too," Brock said, walking around to Jim's side and showing him a photograph of the necklace, "recut into a heart-like shape and it became Le Coeur de la Mer. The Heart of the Ocean. Today it would be worth more than the Hope Diamond."_

_"It was a dreadful, heavy thing," Jim said, with a chuckle. "I don't know how Carol wore it. She didn't like it at all, she mainly kept it in the safe. I only wore it that once," Jim said, "Just for that picture."_

_"You actually think thats you, Papa?" Joanna said, leaning over her grandfather to look at the picture. She was smiling at him indulgently._

_Jim chuckled, "It_ is _me, Jo. Wasn't I a dish?"_

_Brock chuckled, then said, "I tracked it down through insurance records, an old claim that was settled under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know who the claimant was, Jim?"_

_"A Marcus, probably. Maybe even Carol's mother."_

_"That's right, Mrs. Marcus," Brock grinned, crouching down to closer to Jim's height, "Wife of Admiral Alexander Marcus, a Pittsburgh steel tycoon, the claim was for a diamond necklace that had been in his family for years, and would have passed down to his daughter when she married. It was filed right after the sinking, so the diamond had to have gone down with the ship." Jim smiled, and Brock said, "Do you see the date?"_

_"April fourteenth, nineteen twelve," Jo supplied._

_"Which means if this is actually your grandfather," Bodine said, "Then he was wearing the diamond the day the Titanic sank."_

_Brock grinned at Jim, "And that makes you my new best friend."_

\---

_"These are some of the things we recovered from your and the Marcus' adjoined staterooms."_

_The table was adorned with various pieces of jewelry, hair pieces and a hand mirror. Almost all of the pieces were intact, a few chipped and aged, but they still looked beautiful._

_"This was Carol's-" Jim said, picking up the mirror. "How extraordinary, and it looks the same as the last time I saw it." He looked it over, and placed it back into the table._

_His wrinkled fingers ghosted over a butterfly hair pin, before settling on a single cufflink, "These were mine," he said, in awe, "I wore them all the time. They were my father's."_

_He picked it up, and clutched it in his hand. It was pearl and silver, and looked almost exactly the way he'd last seen it, if not for a little more wear. Brock knelt beside him, and said, "Are you ready to go back to the Titanic?"_

\---

_Jim watched with stoic, almost blank expression as Bodine showed him the computer recreation of the Titanic's sinking._

_"Thank you for that fine, forensic analysis, Mr. Bodine," Jim said, glancing away, his voice trailing off, "Of course, the experience of it was... somewhat different," he said with distaste._

_Brock was watching him with a solemn expression, "Will you share it with us?"_

_Jim stood up out of his wheelchair, and shuffled over to the screens on the wall behind him. He watched the footage from the exploration of the Titanic that they'd done earlier._

_"Oh," he said, looking at the screens, eyes glazing over. Everyone in the room was watching him, and they got the faint impression he was seeing something quite different from them- hearing music that wasn't quite there, looking at things that hadn't been there for a long time. His eyes started to fill with tears- he hadn't seen those decks in so long. "Oh," he said, bringing his hands up to his mouth._

_His granddaughter stepped over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, and said, "C'mon, Papa, it's been a long day. You're tired," she turned to the men behind her, "I'm taking him to rest."_

_"No, no, I'm alright, it just... got away from me," he said wiping at his eyes. He was eased back into his wheelchair, and Brock got out a recording device, sitting down to face him._

_"Tell us, Jim," he said, placing the device on the table._

_Jim's eyes were closed, "It's been eighty-four years."_

_"It's okay, just try to remember anything. Anything at all."_

_"Do you want to hear this or not, Mr. Lovett?" he said, and Brock grinned. "It's been eighty four years, and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in. Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was, it really was..."_

\---

It was April 10, 1912, in Southampton, England, nearly noon, when the three cars pulled into the crowd in front of the Titanic. The streets were bustling, horns were honking, and people were talking merrily. Hundreds were already onboard the magnificent ship, waving to those they were leaving behind below. Shiny new cars were being lifted aboard the decks, lower class ticket holders were being inspected for health in quartered off areas before they were being allowed to board, the health officers in their perfectly pressed uniforms were yelling, "This way please!" into the chaos of people, all staring at the grandiose ship.  

The crowds parted, although only just barely, for the train of cars. The cars, a white Renault traveling car, leading a silver-gray Daimler-Benz, as well as another, parked directly in front of the first class boarding platforms, and the personal valet hopped of the front, pulling open the door for a man to step out. The man who stepped out of the car was very attractive, blonde hair and deep blue eyes, and was dressed very well, in dress pants and shirt, with a dark vest and a brown coat over it. As soon as he stepped from the car, he turned to the Titanic.

She was imposing, nearly shining in her glory, fresh paint and washed windows, and the largest ship Jim had ever seen. Her bronze rails were polished till they gleamed, her large red funnels standing against the sky like a magnificent temple. He turned back to the car, where a gloved hand was being held out. He took the hand with his own, and his fiancée stepped from the car. Carol, dressed in a dark blue traveling suit, took one look at the ship and sighed, "I don't know what the fuss is about, it doesn't look any bigger than the Mauretania."

"Oh come on, Carol," Jim grinned at her, before offering her his arm, "it's over a hundred feet longer than the Mauretania, and so much has been improved on! There are squash courts, Parisian cafes, Turkish baths..." Jim said passionately. "And she's unsinkable!"

Carol smiled at him politely, "Yes, I know, Jim, you've been talking about it for days." Her accent was unlike Jim's- she grew up in London with her father, who was American, like Jim, and her British mother. Her mother, however, was currently in Pittsburg, awaiting the families’ arrival from their trip across Europe.

"Sorry," he said, looking back towards the Titanic. Another man stepped from the car, Admiral Alexander Marcus, Carol's father.

He looked towards the ship with his hands on his hips, and sighed, "Not exactly what we sailed in my day, but she's a real beauty, isn't she, my boy?" clapping Jim on the shoulder.

"Yes she is, sir," Jim said. Carol was raised to well to allow herself to roll her eyes at them.

"Now, where's your mother, James? I must speak with her and your stepfather immediately," Marcus looked around, but Jim shook his head.

"I don't believe she and Frank have exited the other car yet, sir."

"Very well, then. James, why don't you take Carol aboard while I take care of the baggage, and see to it your parents had a pleasant ride."

"Come on then, Jim," Carol said, pulling him, I must simply see these staterooms you've been going on about. We've got the parlor suite rooms B52, 54, 56, and 58."

"We mustn't be late," Jim said, leading her through the crowds, personal maids in tow.

"My coat-" Carol said suddenly, turning around.

"I've got it, Miss," one of the maids, a black woman named Uhura, said.

"Oh thank you," Carol said, turning back to the First Class boarding bridge. They walked up it to the White Star Line officers, who were standing at the door, offering greetings.

"Welcome to the Titanic!"

It was the Ship of Dreams to everyone else. But to Jim, it was a slave ship, taking him back to America in chains. Outwardly, he was everything a well brought up young man should be. Inside, he was screaming.

\---

The ship's horn blared, warning the departure of the great ship, able to be heard even across the dock at the shipyard pub, where a table of four workingmen were playing poker. Two of the men, who were both Japanese, were arguing, "I can not believe you bet our tickets!"

"Shut up, you lost our money! I am just trying to get it back!"

The middle of the table contained several dollars worth of change, a pocket knife, a pocket watch and two tickets to the Titanic.

The other two men at the table exchanged glances, the younger said, in broken English, his native Russian spelling into every word, "Leonard, you are parting with everything we have!"

Pavel Chekov was very young- only seventeen, with curly hair and a baby face, and could be naive, but the kid was smart, and he trusted McCoy, even if he didn't always understand him. Leonard McCoy, however, was in his late twenties, unshaven, and had a grumpy look on his handsome face, but he nearly always looked like that. He leaned over to his friend, and said in his southern drawl, "When you got nothin', you got nothin' to lose." He looked to the other men, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, said, "Hit me again."

They passed cards, Leonard's dark eyes betraying nothing as he looked down at his hands.

"Alright, moment of truth," Pavel said, wearily, tossing down his cards. They were a miss. He shook his head.

One of the Japanese tossed down his cards- also nothing- and then the other. Leonard looked at the cards, and shook his head, "Two pair," he turned to his friend, "Sorry Pavel."

"You lose my money?" Pavel said, shocked, and started speaking rapidly in Russia.

Leonard shook his head, "I'm sorry, you're not gonna see your mamma again for a long time," he insisted, leaning in, Pavel's eyes searching his, as Leonard suddenly shouted, "'cause we're goin' to America!" and slapped a full house down on the table.

Pavel grabbed the tickets and yelled, "Yes! Whoo!" as Leonard laughed.

Leonard stood up, "Come on! I'm goin' home!" and hugged Pavel as they shouted.

"I go to America!" Pavel shouted to the other men in the bar, who were all grinning at them, and the Japanese who'd started fighting each other.

"No, mate, Titanic go to America, in five minutes!" the bartender said, pointing to the clock.

The two men looked at each other and scrambled after their winnings, and ran towards the Titanic. They ducked under docks and ran around horse-drawn buggies, waving family members, and then ran abroad the last dock, Leonard yelling, "Wait, we're passengers!"

The steward held out his hand for their tickets, and Leonard stuffed them into his hand. "Have you been through the inspection queue?" he asked.

Leonard looked at him as if he were crazy, "Of course! Anyway, we don't have any lice, we're Americans, both of us!" he gestured behind him to Pavel, who was grinning and wisely not saying a word.

The man nodded, "Right, come aboard," he gestured, and they jumped the foot over the water that the dock had pulled away.

They ran through the halls, practically stumbling over themselves, as Leonard yelled, "We're the luckiest sons of bitches in the world, you know that?" and running to the top steerage decks.

Pavel ran up to the railing and started waving, "Goodbye!"

Leonard ran up next to him, and said, "You know somebody?"

Pavel looked down at him, almost blushing, "No, but that is not the point!" and resumed frantically waving to the crowds below, as the ropes were lifted, and the Titanic set sail.

A little while later Leonard and Pavel were back below decks, looking for their room, "Oh, right here," he said, and let himself in. "Hey, how are you doin'?" he said to the two Japanese men in the room, "I'm Leonard, Leonard McCoy, nice to meet you." Pavel tossed his bags on the top of one of the four bunks, the other two already occupied by the other men. "Who says you get top bunk, kid?"

Pavel laughed, and stuck his head up, as Leonard tossed his bags on the bottom bunk and ruffled Pavel’s hair. "Hello, I am Pavel," he said to the man sitting on the lower bunk.

The man looked up at him, and said in broken, but passable, English, "Hello. I am Hikaru."

\---

Shortly after they boarded, the two families inspected their staterooms. Frank and Admiral Marcus walked out onto the private promenade deck, looking over the balcony, as they were followed by a steward, who said, "This is your private promenade deck. Will you be requiring anything?"

"No," Marcus said, waving the man off, and cracking open the bottle of chilled champagne that was delivered to their room. He poured some into both his and Frank's glasses, and said, "To our children," holding them up to a toast.

Frank held his up, and grunted in reply.

In the stateroom- 52-58, which was often called the 'Millionaire Suite'- Jim and the ladies were unpacking, and directing their maids to unpack. One of the maids was helping Winona and Carol put their things in the dressers, and the other was helping Jim with his paintings. The suites were in an Empire style, comprised of a total of four bedrooms- the largest master for Marcus, who paid for the journey for all of them, a smaller single for Carol adjoining his suite, a separate single for Jim, since the two weren't married yet, and the other master for Winona and Frank- as well as a water closet, a bath, a wardrobe room, and a large sitting room, in addition to the promenade outside.

The room was beautiful, with dark wood paneling and exquisite furniture, but it was... almost lifeless. Everything was a replica of its neighbor, and almost too grand, as though it was never expected to be used. Jim had the crate containing paintings he'd purchased throughout their trip delivered to their rooms, intending to make the room feel a little more lived in. He assumed his books- his prized possessions- were directed to his room.

"This one, sir?" Nyota Uhura said, lifting out a painting of several ballerinas dancing.

He shook his head, "It had a lot of faces on it," he said, looking through the box. She sighed. Jim grinned, this maid was always his favorite, she was fun to torment; nothing too far of course, he was a gentleman after all. "Ah, here it is!" he said pulling it out of the box, moving to see where it would look best.

"Would you like all to hang all of them on the walls?" she asked, and Jim nodded.

"It'll bring life to the room," he propped the painting up against one of the walls, where he thought it would fit nicely.

Jim turned back to the boxes as Frank walked back into the sitting room. He was overweight and obnoxious, among other things, and he hated Jim. He'd hated Sam too, before Sam left to marry a woman whose heart, not money, he'd fallen in love with, and hadn't spoken to any of them since. The feeling had been mutual on both accounts. He was a gambler, and might have had money in his own right once, but Jim hadn't ever seen the money, even though his mother had been married to him since Jim was a baby. Jim’s own father, a captain in the Navy, went down with his ship, leaving what was left of the Kirk fortune to his mother.

"Not those terrible finger paintings again. That was a waste of money," Frank said with a sneer.

Jim shook his head, disgusted, and said, "They're fascinating." He pulled out another two paintings, and placed them on the loveseat, inspecting them.

"What's the artist's name?" Uhura asked, pointing to the one he'd just placed on the left.

"Something Picasso, I think," he said, after a moment.

"Something Picasso? He won't amount to anything. He won't, trust me."

"Why don't you go help my mother, Frank? I think she's looking for you," Jim said through gritted teeth, biting his tongue since they were in the company of others. Frank grunted, and walked off to go find Winona.

Carol passed him in the doorway as she stepped into the sitting room, looking for the rest of her things. "Jim, have you seen my smaller hatbox? I think it's gone missing."

Jim shook his head, "Didn't you have it earlier?"

"No that was the larger one."

Watching the two of them from the doorway, Jim unpacking the paintings and looking for places to hang them, and Carol look through the luggage, Admiral Marcus said, "I suppose this'll be what it's like when the two of you are married. My daughter looking for hats while her husband redecorates the place with his various trophies."

Carol barely looked up, "Mmmhm, yes I'm sure," she said, not paying either men any of her attention. "Father have you seen my hatbox? I haven't the faintest where it's gotten off to. It has my favorite Toque in it, the one I bought in Paris with Mother a few years ago. She'll be so disappointed I've lost it."

"Sorry, sweetpea, I haven't," he said, "Not since I saw to it they were delivered on board. I'll have words with someone about this if they've gone and lost it. If it really means that much to you, we'll just have to make another trip back, just the three of us sometime- or maybe the four of us." He'd stepped over to his daughter's side, and put his arm around her shoulders, kissing her hair.

"Thank you," she sighed. "The maids have finished putting my things away, I think. I'm going to be on the promenade," she dismissed, and passed her father and Jim. Marcus walked over to Jim, who'd finished with the paintings, and put his arm around his shoulders. Marcus led him to the doorway to watch Carol look over the water and interact with the other maid, Janice Rand.

Marcus gave Jim a tired smile, "Women," he said shaking his head. "Her mother's the same way. They're quite a handful, Wallace woman, I'll have you know. You just have to know how to make them happy. You'll make my daughter happy, won't you, James?" he said with a stern look.

Jim nodded, "She's a wonderful girl."

"That's right," he said, chuckling. "She's a thing of beauty." He released Jim's shoulders, heading in the direction of his own room.

Jim sighed, and leaned on the doorway, watching Carol. She was beautiful, alright, but that was the end of Jim's feelings towards her. She was a nice girl from an extremely wealthy family, but Jim didn't love her, and she didn't love him. They would occasionally engage in civil, polite conversations, but for the most part, they shared no common interests or desires.

\---

That night at Cherbourg,  a woman came aboard named Margaret Brown, but everyone called her Molly. Her husband had struck gold someplace out west, and she was what Jim's mother distastefully called 'new money', whispering it in his ear as they passed her in the hall.

She was a heavy woman, about forty five, dressed in furs and wearing a large feathered hat, carrying a suitcase under each arm as she walked up the gangway, a spindly porter running after her to take the bags.

"Well I wasn't about to wait all day for you, sonny," she said, and handed him the bags, "Take 'em the rest of the way if you think you can manage!" she said. She may have dressed in the finery of her peers, but Winona made sure he knew that Molly was never going to be one of them.

\---

By the next afternoon, they were steaming west from the coast of Ireland, with nothing out ahead of them but ocean. The sky was clear and beautiful, the sea calm ahead of them.

Captain Pike stepped out to the side of the ship, looking out into the ocean, next to his stoic First Officer, Benjamin Spock. "Take her to sea, Mister Spock. Let's stretch her legs."

"Yes sir," Spock said, and headed into the cabin, where he said,  "All ahead, Mr. Riley."

"Sir!" They both went to the ship's telegraphs and signaled 'Full Speed Ahead.'

\---

In the engine room, the chief engineer looked at the telegraph, which had switched to 'All Ahead Full' and yelled out the command.

On the catwalk, the shipbuilder, Montgomery Scott, watched as engineers and greasers scrambled to adjust valves. Towering above them were the twin reciprocating engines, four stories tall, their ten-foot-long connecting rods surging up and down with the turning of the massive crankshafts. The engines boomed loudly as they kicked into action, and he smiled as his creation began to do what it was born to.

\---

"Twenty one knots, sir!" Spock said, unable to keep the delight out of his voice. He had served under the man for eleven years, but never had a ship they'd commanded been so large and so powerful.

Pike grinned, looking over the balcony, resting his arms on the wooden railing, as he surveyed his craft. People were milling around on the decks, taking in the fresh air, including two young men who were standing at the bow of the ship, looking into the water below. An officer came up to Pike, and offered him a cup of tea. Pike accepted the offer, sipping it as he looked into the vast ocean ahead.

\---

Leonard and Pavel ran to the front of the ship, whooping and yelling in excitement, as they threw themselves to the front of the ship. They grabbed the railing, and felt the wind in their faces as they leaned over the edge, looking down at the water being broken below.

"Look at that, kid!" Leonard said, pointing down at the dolphin jumping in the water next to the ship. "Look! Another one!" Leonard stepped on the lowest bar of the railing, holding on tightly to the steel wires, and looked across the ocean.

"I can see the Statue of Liberty already!" Pavel said, laughing, and pointing. "Wery small, of course!"

They laughed, and Leonard yelled, feeling free for once in his life, "I'm the king of the world!"

"Whoo!" Pavel yelled as they let out their excitement. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and they certainly weren't going to waste it!

\---

"She is the largest moving object ever made by the hand of man in all  history," J. Bruce Ismay, Managing Director of White Star Line, said, "and our master shipbuilder, Mr. Scott here, designed her from the keel plates up." He gestured to the man sitting next to Winona at the table, a Scotsman in his mid forties. The families were dining with Mr. Scott and Mr. Ismay, as well as Molly Brown, in the Palm Court restaurant that afternoon. They were seated in a beautiful spot, with high arched windows lighting the table, which was adorned with never-before-used-china. Frank was sitting next to Molly, much to his displeasure, and on Winona's other side, Jim was sitting next to Carol and her father.

"I may have knocked her together, but the idea was Mr. Ismay's. He envisioned a steamer so grand in scale and so luxurious in appointments, that it's supremacy would never be challenged! And here she is, willed into solid reality," Scott said with a smile on his face.

Jim was interested, he really was, but it just felt so... stuffy. He was never comfortable at these things, no matter how many he'd been to in his life. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, bringing it to his lips, and letting out a puff of smoke. His mother, dressed in some of her finest, with pearl drop earrings and an outrageous hat to match, leaned over and whispered, her face not betraying a thing, "You know how I don't like that, James."

Jim sighed, and put it out in one of the ash trays on the table. The waiter came over and asked what they wanted, Jim replying, "I don't care." And his mother sighing, and saying, "Lamb."

"So, who came up with the name Titanic?" Molly said suddenly, "Was it you, Bruce?" she said as if she were incredibly proud of him.

"Well yes, actually," he said, smiling and almost embarrassed, a few people laughed, "I wanted to convey sheer size, and size means stability, luxury, and above all, strength."

"Do you know of Dr. Freud? His ideas about the male preoccupation with size might be of particular interest to you, Mr. Ismay," Jim said.

Mr. Scott choked, suppressing laughter, as Molly gave him an approving look. His mother leaned over, whispering furiously, "My god, James, what has gotten into you?"

Jim stood up, and said, "Excuse me," leaving the room.

\---

Leonard sat on the poop deck, his leather-bound sketch pad in his hands. The sun danced across his eyes, nearly blinding him. He glanced over to the man and his daughter who were standing at the railing a few feet away from him, pointing to the seagulls on the horizon. Leonard's hand moved over the open page, sketching the two of them as Pavel and one of their roommates chatted.

Both young men could only speak in broken English, occasionally getting words or phrases entirely wrong, staring at each other, puzzled- one because he had no idea what the other was saying, the other because he hadn’t realized what he said wrong- until they laughed it off and continued their conversation.

“Do you-” the Japanese man asked, then paused trying to think of the word, “make money?” He gestured to the sketch pad.

Leonard looked up, frowning, “What?”

Pavel elbowed him, and said, “He wants to know if you make money drawing.”

“Oh,” Leonard said, “Yeah, I suppose. A little. Just enough to live off of.”

“I am Sulu,” he said, bowing slightly.

“Leonard McCoy,” Leonard said, offering his hand. Sulu looked at it momentarily, and then hesitantly took it. He glanced to Pavel, who nodded encouragingly, and smiled. Leonard released his hand, turning back to his sketch pad. Pavel and Hikaru, Leonard thought he remembered hearing from the stateroom, continued their conversation.

Leonard glanced up to the much upper decks, where only First Class passengers were allowed to go. A young man was walking up to the railing, the sun glinting off of his golden hair. His head was held high, but he looked almost sad, staring over the water. Leonard couldn't tear his eyes away. He was gorgeous, and so very much out of Leonard’s class.

The man glanced across the lower decks, briefly meeting eyes with Leonard before looking away. But after a moment he looked back. Pavel waved his hand in front of Leonard's eyes, but Leonard didn't look away. Pavel muttered something in Russian, shaking his head.

Suddenly a man- probably the younger man's father- stepped up behind him, and grabbed his arm. The young man ripped his arm away, and yelled at the man, although Leonard was too far away to hear them. The man yelled back, and the golden-haired man turned and retreated back into the ship.

\---

Jim saw his whole life as if he'd already lived it. An endless parade of parties and and cotillions, yachts and polo matches... always the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter. He felt like he was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull him back, no one who cared... or even noticed.

That wasn't what he wanted out of his life. He didn't want to live something that someone had already planned for him, a life of socializing with men and women who cared more for their money than their children, more for a dress or a hat than philosophy and knowledge. There was so much more out there than his sheltered little world.

And so he found himself running, almost in tears at the prospect of what was to come, towards the rear of the ship. He didn't care as he ran into other people on the deck, past a man lying on a bench, and threw himself at the side of the railing, out of breath. He looked over, and then taking a deep breath, he climbed over the railing, his heels between the bars, and faced the water, only holding on with his hands.

He was breathing heavily, looking at the waves crashing below on the dark water, when a gruff voice said behind him, "Don't do it."

Jim turned to see the man who'd been looking at him earlier that day, "Don't come any closer."

"Come on, kid, just give me your hand, I'll pull you back over," he said, stepping a little closer.

"No, I'll jump!" Jim said, looking back over at the water. It was the only option. His life was spiraling out of control. As if it had ever been in his control.

The man brought a cigarette to his lips and took a drag, before stepping a little closer to the edge and tossing it over. He stuck his hands in his pockets, and said, "No you won't."

"What do you mean, no I won't?" Jim frowned and looked at him. The guy was... really attractive, and it was a highly inappropriate time to think about that, he knew, but he couldn’t help it. He was scruffy, and had dark brown hair that was parted to the side. He probably hadn't shaved in a couple of days, and his clothes were all wrinkled. But he looked fit, under the coarse clothing. It didn't surprise him go think so, Jim had liked people of both sexes for as long as he could remember. Jim knew that thinking people of the same gender were attractive wasn't normal, or well, wasn't _acceptable_ , so he'd never let anyone else know. It was just another thing in his life he had no control over. Another reason to let go.

"Well, you would have done it already," he said in a heavy southern drawl, shrugging, and looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

"You're distracting me, go away."

"I can't," the man sighed, "I'm involved now. If you jump in there now, I'm gonna have to go in there after ya'." He shed his coat, and started to take off his shoes.

Jim looked at him as though he were crazy, "What? No! You'll be killed!"

"I'm a good swimmer," he said, unlacing his boots.

"The fall alone would kill you!"

"It would hurt, not sayin' it wouldn't," he shook his head, "Tell you the truth, though. I'm a lot more concerned about that water being so cold." He finished pulling off his other boot, and tossed it into the pile of clothes. He looked up at him, “And I may throw up on you. Never did like heights.”

But Jim was already lost, staring down at the water again, swallowing, "How cold?"

"Freezing. Maybe a couple a degrees over," he shrugged. "When I was a kid my daddy took me up to Wisconsin and we went ice fishing. I fell through some thin ice, and I'm tellin' ya', water that cold," he said, leaning on the railing, "hits you like a thousand knives stabbing you all over your body. Can't breath, can't think- least, not about anything but the pain. You'd have to be damn stupid to want to jump in. Which is why I'm not lookin' forward to jumpin' in after you."

"You're crazy!"

He shrugged, "I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship. Come on, give me your hand, kid. I'll pull you back over."

He held out his hand, and Jim looked down at it for a moment before taking it. He slowly turned around to face the man, who said, "McCoy. Leonard McCoy."

"Jim Kirk." The guy grinned, and Jim thought briefly, it was almost worth it. He stepped up onto the next railing to climb over, but the rail was slippery, and as soon as he placed any weight on his foot, he slipped.

He screamed as he fell, only held by Leonard's hand. "Hold on!" Leonard yelled, "I've got you!" Jim was holding on tightly, but the moment he tried to pull himself up he slipped again, causing him to cry out. "Listen to me, Jim, you have up try and pull yourself up! I can't hold you like this for long!" Leonard said, straining to hold him.

"I-"

"You _have_ to!" Leonard said. Jim nodded and somehow managed to lift his leg high enough to bring his knees to the railing, and Leonard managed to pull him up, just as three sailors who heard Jim's cry came running.

"Scared me down to my bones, kid," Leonard grunted.

"What's all this?" he said, looking between the two of them, and the side of the railing where they'd just watched Leonard pull Jim over. "Did you push him over? Stand back!" he yelled to Leonard, who stood up, and and then to one of the other men, "Call the Master of Arms!"

\---

They locked handcuffs around Leonard's wrist as Jim's mother came running up to him and hugged him, "Jim!"

Frank grabbed the side of Jim's collar and said lowly, "What were you thinking?"

Jim jerked away, gritting out, "It was an _accident_." He stood up and turned to the Master of Arms, and said, "It was an accident!"

"An accident?" Frank said, looking at him with disbelief. "He tried to push you over!" Leonard was watching them with a guarded expression.

"Yes!" Jim said, "I was trying to see the uh, propellers! And I was bending over the railing _really_ far, and I slipped! It was a good thing Leonard here was there to grab me!" Jim chuckled nervously, and Frank looked at him with disbelief.

The Master of Arms chuckled, "Boys," shaking his head, "Well then, the man's a hero!"

"Was that the way of it?" one of the officers asked Leonard, turning him around.

"Yeah," Leonard said, watching Jim warily, "that's how it happened."

"Very well, release him, it's all well, now back to our brandy!" Leonard was released, and was rubbing his wrist, when the Master of Arms nodded in his direction, saying to Frank, "Perhaps a little something for the boy?"

Everyone was looking at him, so Frank reluctantly turned to Leonard, surveying him, and gruffly said, "I guess even you deserve something for saving my," he glanced at Jim, frowning, as though what he were about to say displeased him, " _son's_ life, so join us for dinner tomorrow night."

Leonard looked past Frank, meeting Jim's eyes, as he said, "Sure. I'll be there."

\---

Jim was sitting at the desk in his room, looking over the book collection he'd brought with him, when he heard a knock on the door. It opened, and Admiral Marcus walked in. He walked to the desk and leaned on it next to Jim. "I know you've been melancholy, and I don't pretend to know why. Although I should hope to know my future son-in-law." He shook his head, "Carol doesn’t seem to know either," he noted, "She's been worried about you recently, and with the events of tonight, she decided to retire early, otherwise I'm sure she would have come to see you herself."

Jim looked up and sighed, "I'm sure she would have."

Marcus looked down to what he had brought with him, a velvet jewelry case, "I had intended to save this until the engagement gala next week. But I think," he opened the case to reveal an enormous blue diamond in the shape of a heart, on a chain of white diamonds, "it's better if you give it to her yourself," he said, patting Jim on the shoulder, "It should cheer her up. Blue is her favorite color, after all."

"Oh my-" Jim said, and touched it. He’d never seen anything like it before. In all it’s stunning beauty, it felt like it was strangling him. Even though it wasn’t for him, it tied him to his future wife, just as much as that heavy ring on her finger did.

Marcus chuckled, "It's been in our family for years. 56 carats, it was once worn by Louis the Sixteenth. They call it Le Coeur de la Mer, the-"

"The Heart of the Ocean," Jim finished numbly, looking at the jewel's beauty. "It's rather... overwhelming."

"Well, it's for royalty," Marcus said, looking at the necklace fondly, "We are royalty, Jim," he squeezed Jim’s shoulder. He closed the case, and set it on top of the books. "I'll leave this here for you, Jim. Give it to Carol when you see fit."

\---

"My momma died when I was a little kid, my daddy when I was fifteen, and I didn't have any siblings, so I've been on my own ever since," Leonard said, as he and Jim walked around the upper decks amongst the wealthier people aboard the ship. "We've walked about a mile on this boat deck, and chewed over the weather, but you haven't said ten words. I get the feeling you aren't the type to normally shut your mouth." Their shoulders were brushing, and it gave Jim a little rush of excitement when he realized they’d fallen into such close proximity, despite the space around them.

Jim frowned, "Did you just insult me, Bones?"

Leonard shrugged, "Stop calling me that."

"What, Bones? No, I like it. And anyway, I wanted to thank you for yesterday. For your, uh, discretion. And pulling me back."

"No problem, kid," Leonard said, and Jim frowned.

"Don't call me that," Jim shot him a look, "And I know what you're thinking. 'Oh poor little rich kid, how many troubles could he have?'"

"Nah, just the opposite," Leonard said, stopping at one of the deck chairs.

"Well it's just everything," Jim said, frustrated. "My father's dead, and my mother can't stand to look at _me_ , I'm engaged and all of Philadelphia society is going to be there, and- ugh," he said, shaking his head.

When he looked up, Leonard was watching him intently, with his dark eyes not leaving Jim's face. Jim felt the air being knocked out of him.

"Do you love her?" Leonard asked.

"What?"

"The girl you're marrying, do you love her?"

"That's-"

"It's simple question, kid," Leonard said, crossing his arms and leaning against the railing.

Jim opened his mouth to protest, but it was as if the man's eyes were looking straight through him. He shook his head, "No."

"There. Now that wasn't that hard," he said, shaking his head. "Why don't you break it off, then? Find someone you really love?"

Jim shook his head, "You don't understand, it isn't that easy."

"Why not?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Jim shot back, and then looked at the sketchpad under Leonard's arm, and snatched it from under him. "What's this?" he asked leafing through it. "Are you an artist or something?"

Leonard was following him as Jim walked across the deck and sat down in one of the deck chairs, "Something like that."

"These are- these are actually pretty good," Jim said, looking through the pictures, "They're very good, actually." The pictures were of people, their hands, their faces.

Leonard shrugged, "They didn't think too much of them in Paris."

"Paris? Wow, you do get around," he said, flipping through the pages. He turned one, to come upon a couple of pictures of naked women. "Wow, Bones. And these were drawn from life?"

"That 's the good thing about Paris, lots of people willing to take their clothes off."

Another couple of pages and Jim came upon one of the same women from before, "You liked this one, didn't you?"

"Well she had beautiful hands," he said.

"I think you might have had an affair with her," Jim laughed.

"No, just with her hands. She was a one-legged prostitute called Jocelyn," he said, flipping the page to show him.

"Oh," he said, flustered.

"She had a good sense of humor, though."

"You really like anatomy, don't you?" Jim said, his fingers tracing the lines of their bodies on the paper.

"Well I always wanted to be a doctor, but I never could scrape up enough money to go to medical school."

\---

"... and after that I worked on a squid boat in Monterrey, then I went down to Los Angeles and started doing portraits there for ten cents a piece," Leonard said, arms braced on the railing of the upper decks. He was looking over the horizon as the sun set. Jim was standing next to him, his posture mirroring Leonard's.

Jim looked down at his hands, and then glanced over at Leonard, "I wish I could be like you, Bones. Free to- do _whatever_! Head out on the horizon whenever I feel like it!" He sighed, and then turned towards Leonard, grinning, "Say- say we'll go to that pier, only if we ever just talk about it."

"Nah, we'll do it," Leonard said, turning towards Jim, "We'll drink cheap beer and ride roller coasters till we throw up," Jim laughed, and Leonard laughed with him, bumping shoulders with him. "And we'll ride horses on the beach like I used to in Georgia."

Jim grinned, meeting his eye, "Deal." He looked to the sunset, and sighed, “Isn’t it gorgeous?”

“Yeah, it is,” Leonard said, but he wasn’t looking at the sunset.

\---

A few minutes later, as they were laughing against the railing, Jim's mother, with a countess, and Molly Brown stepped walked behind them. Jim threw his head back laughing as Bones chuckled.

"Jim!" Winona said, shocked her son was being so- so- loud and ungentlemanly!

Jim practically leapt to attention, smacking Bones' arm to get his attention, and attempting to straighten out his suit as he turned around. "Mother," he winced. "May I, uh, introduce you to Leonard McCoy."

"M'am," he said, nodding towards her. They hadn't met the previous night, she'd been fretting over Jim too much to pay any attention to the man who’d saved his life.

"Charmed, I'm sure," she said coldly. The others seemed curious about the man who'd saved his life, but his mother regarded him as though he were dangerous. As though he were a bug, one to be squashed as quickly as possible.

"Well, Leonard, it seems you're a handy man to have around in any situation!" Molly Brown said. Before she had a chance to say anything else, a bugle sounded. "Why do they insist on always announcing dinner like a damn cavalry charge?"

Jim laughed, "Shall we go dress, mother?" and offered her his arm. She took it stiffly. "See you at dinner, Bones!" he called over his shoulder.

Bones waved, and watched them leave, leaning on the rail.

"Son! Son!" Molly said, trying to catch his attention as he stared after them, "do you have the slightest comprehension of what you're doing?"

Leonard crossed his arms and looked down, glancing back up to her, "Not really. My momma never had the chance to tell me that kind of thing."

"Well, you're about to go into the snakepit. I hope you're ready," Molly said, glancing him over. "What are you planning to wear?" Leonard glanced down, and blushed. Molly sighed, "I figured. Come on."

\---

"I was right! You and my son are about the same size," Molly said, adjusting the tuxedo jacket. She walked around him to get a better look as he stood in front of the mirror in her stateroom. Clothes were strewn over all the fine furniture, and Leonard was a few feet back, admiring the picture he made.

"Just about, m'am."

She whistled, "You shine up like a new penny." He made a little noise of agreement, and she laughed.

\---

"Carol-" Jim called from the doorway in his room, he stuck his head out, and couldn't see her, so he walked over to her room. The door wasn't closed so he walked in, and she sighed.

"I can't find anything to wear! I could have _sworn_ I'd brought more than this," she said, bending over the dresses strewn about the room, a few on her bed, two in the closet, one on the chair in front of her makeup table.

"Why don't you wear that blue dress? Your mother and I always liked that one on you," Marcus said, walking by  her room, poking his head in.

"Oh I don't know," she said, shaking her head, a few loose curls bouncing, "I don't think I have any jewelry to wear with that," she sighed.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," he said, leaning in the doorway, the blue velvet case tucked under his arm.

"I'm going to go ahead to dinner, I'll meet you there," Marcus said, with a wink that Jim caught when looking back at the man. He'd caught on to what he was going to do, then.

"Alright," Carol said, tucking a loose strand behind her ear. She stood up, and turned to Jim, hands on her hips. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Jim stepped from the doorway, and pulled out the case, and held it out to her, "Your father gave me this to give to you," he said, a little awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. "It was supposed to be for you at our engagement.”

Carol opened the case, her mouth forming an 'o' as she looked down at the necklace inside. She sighed, shutting it, and trailing over to the bed.

"Oh I dread wearing this thing," she said with a huff, dropping down to sit on her bed, the case dropping down beside her. "My mother let me try it on as a child, it's terribly heavy." She glanced up, and gave him a little smile, "Sorry, Jim, I didn't mean- it's lovely, really." She stood up, and kissed him on the cheek, "Thank you."

"It really belonged to your family," he shrugged, and she shot him a look, "Oh fine, you're welcome."

She smiled, satisfied. Uhura brushed passed him, entering the bedroom, and took ahold of the door, nearly pushing him from the frame as she frowned at him. "Please leave, Mr. Kirk,  Miss Marcus needs to get dressed. It wouldn't be _proper_ for you to see her undressed," she said pointedly, shutting the door in his face before he had a chance to protest.

\---

Leonard stepped up to the door, hair slicked back and dressed to the nines. The steward pulled open the door for him, and said, "Good evening sir."

Leonard stepped into the room, and nodded, unsure of what he was supposed to say. The upper landing and grand staircase took his breath away. Overhead was the glass dome, and underneath, a crystal chandelier. People were dotted across the room, assessed in finery- women in floor length dresses, jewelry, men in evening dress.

He descended to A deck, down the First Class Grand Staircase- truly the epitome of the grandest naval architecture of the time. He paused at the small landing before the final steps, looking over the elaborate clock, and listened to the music being played, before walking down the final steps. Several men nodded in greeting, and after the initial shock of it, he nodded back.

Standing near the base of the staircase, with his hands clasped behind his back, like many of the gentleman were doing, Leonard glanced up the stairs.

Jim's parents walked down the stairs, arm in arm, making a haughty pair. His mother's eyes were shrewd, and his stepfather's angry- or maybe just annoyed. He nodded at Leonard as he passed, and then at another man. He didn't recognize him, it seemed- and that made a smile tug at the corner of his mouth.

"Where is my son?" Winona said, turning to her husband.

"I don't know, I'm sure he'll be down in a few minutes. There's the countess," he said, pointing. He led her over in the other woman's direction.

After they walked down the stairs, past Leonard, he glanced up at the stairs, and Jim, who was following them, caught his eye. He was dressed in a fine suit, and a woman was on his arm, a vision in blue. But he didn't have eyes for anyone but Jim. It was- it was beyond stupid, and his momma would be rollin' in her grave, falling for a rich kid, any rich kid, much less a man. But there was something about Jim that had him coming back, more than just the finery of First Class. It was _beyond_ stupid, because Jim was engaged and he didn't love her, but he would. He didn't even know if Jim could even like him back, that wasn't the type of thing one brought up when in a casual conversation between two male _friends_. But the way Jim was looking at him...

"Bo- Leonard!" Jim said, almost stumbling over his words as his eyes raked over his friend. "You really clean up well," he said, grinning, and meeting eyes with Bones, a look of almost- hunger?- in his eyes. There was no way Leonard had imagined that.

A faint sound of a woman clearing her throat next to Jim caught their attention. She said, "Well, Jim, aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Oh! Right, sorry, Carol," he said. "Carol, this is Leonard McCoy." She glanced over him, seemingly approving. He looked to Bones, and said, "Bones, this is Carol Marcus, my fiancée."

She offered her gloved hand and Leonard took it, bowing down to kiss it, "It's a pleasure."

Carol said, "So you're the one who saved his life?"

He nodded, "Yes m'am."

She smiled at him, "Thank you for that." She turned around, arm still linked in Jim's, and called out, "Father!"

Her father, who had been chatting with another older man near the foot of the stairs, nodded at him and parted ways, walking over to his daughter. "Carol?"

"Father, this is Leonard McCoy."

Marcus held out his hand to shake Bones'. "Nice to meet you, son. I'm Alexander Marcus."

"Nice to meet you, sir."

Jim lead the three towards his parents, and tapped his mother on the shoulder, and said, "Mother, surely you remember Mr. McCoy."

His mother turned, and a look of astonishment played on her face, but she didn't say a word. Frank, however, looked him over, his dour expression not wavering.

"McCoy-" Frank said gruffly, "I didn't recognize you. You can almost pass for a gentleman."

"Yeah, almost."

\---

Carol took the arm of her father, freeing Jim and Leonard to walk side by side down the grand staircases towards the reception room on D deck.

Among the swirling throngs, people chatting and strolling, the band playing merrily. Jim leaned in close and pointed out several notables, "There's the Countess Rothes," he nodded in her direction, then looked around. "And, um, that's John Jacob Astor... the richest man on the ship. His little wifey there," he leaned in a little closer to Leonard, "Madeleine is my age and in a delicate condition. See how she's trying to hide it. Quite the scandal."

Leonard snorted in amusement.

"And that's Benjamin Guggenheim and his mistress, Madame Aubert. Mrs.Guggenheim is at home with the children, of course," he nodded towards a couple.

"And over there, that's Sir Cosmo and Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon. She designs naughty lingerie, among her many talents," Jim waved, as he caught her eye, "Very popular with the royals." Leonard chuckled, as Molly came up next to them.

"Care to escort a lady to dinner?" she asked, smiling, looking wonderful in a beaded gown. "Ain't nothin' to it, is there, Leonard? Remember, the only thing they respect is money, so just act like you've got a gold mine and you're in the club."

The entourage strolled toward the dining saloon, where Astor was going through the ornate double doors. "Hey, Astor!" Molly called.

He turned towards her, and smiled when he saw who called out, "Molly, it's nice to see you."

"J.J., Madeleine, I'd like you to meet Leonard McCoy," Jim said, presenting his friend.

"How do you do?" Madeline said, shaking his hand.

"Pleasure."

J.J. shook his hand, and said, "Good to meet you Leonard. Are you of the Boston McCoys?"

"Savannah McCoys, actually."

J.J. nodded as though he's heard of them, but then looked confused.

\---

The dining saloon was lit with a constellation of chandeliers, full of elegantly dressed people and beautiful music from Wallace's small orchestra. The two entered and move across the room to their table. Carol was already seated next to her father, and Frank and Winona next to them.

Leonard must have been nervous, but he never faltered. They assumed he was one of them- an heir to a railroad fortune, perhaps- new money, obviously, but still a member of the club. Jim's mother of course, could always be counted upon...

"Tell us of the accommodations in steerage, Mr. McCoy. I hear they're quite good on this ship," Winona said, as her way of letting him know that he may look like them, but he very well was _not_.

Leonard was seated opposite Jim, who was flanked by Carol and Frank. Also at the table were Mr. Scott, Molly Brown, Ismay, Guggenheim, Madame Aubert, and the Astors.

"The best I've seen, m'am. Hardly any rats," Leonard said sarcastically. The party chuckled.

"Mr. McCoy is joining us from third class. He was of some assistance to my daughter's fiancé last night," Marcus said to the group.

"It turns out Leonard is a great artist, he was kind enough to show me some of his work."

"Jim and I differ on our definition of art," Frank said, insisting on asserting his domninance, and Jim barely suppressed a sigh.

Jim coughed, signaling Leonard take his napkin off his plate, as the waiter came by. He did, and glanced at his plate. There were three forks, and three spoons and he barely knew what to do with _one_. He leaned over to Molly, and whispered, "Are these all for me?"

She whispered back, "Start from the outside, work your way in."

"To you, Montgomery!" Mr. Ismay said, raising his glass.

"Your ship is beautiful, Scotty," Jim said to him.

"Thanks, lad," Scotty said, nodding his head, "I know she is."

The waiter stepped over to Leonard, and asked, "How do you take your caviar, sir?"

"No caviar for me, never did like it much, myself."

"And where exactly do you live, Mr. McCoy?" Winona asked, patting her mouth with her napkin.

"Well, right now my address is the RMS Titanic. After that, I'm on God's good humor," he said with a shrug.

"And how is it you have means to travel?" she asked, her subtle way of bringing back the fact he wasn't wealthy like the rest of them. That he didn’t _really_ belong here with the rest of them. It disgusted Jim.

"I work my way from place to place, and such. But I won my ticket here on the Titanic in a game of poker. A very lucky hand."

"All life is a game of luck!" one of the men at the table- Colonel Gracie, Leonard thought he remembered- said.

Frank shook his head, "Real men make their own luck, right, McCoy?"

"Hm," he said, nodding.

"You find that sort of rootless existence appealing, do you?" Winona asked, bringing a glass of champagne to her lips. Molly shot her a dark look.

"Well," he said, looking down, "yes m'am I do." He looked up towards her, "it's a big world, and I want to see it all before I go. My father was always talkin' about goin' to see the ocean. He died in the town he was born in, and never did see it. You can't wait around, because you never know what hand you're going to get dealt next. See, my momma died when I was a kid, and my father died of influenza when I was fifteen, and I've been on the road since. Somethin' like that teaches you to take life as it comes at you. To make each day count."

Molly raised her glass in a salute. "Well said, Leonard."

"Hear, hear!" the Colonel Gracie said.

Jim raised his glass, meeting eyes with Leonard, and said, "To making it count."

The rest of the table raised their glasses and said, "To making it count."

\---

Later that night, while dessert was being served, Molly regaled them all with the tale of her husband stumbling home drunk one night and lighting the hidden money on fire, and the table was laughing loudly.

"Next it'll be brandies in the Smoking Room," Jim whispered to Leonard across the table.

"Well, join me for a brandy, gentlemen?" the man said, standing up. Several others, including Marcus, Ismay and Frank stood up.

Jim chuckled, "Now they retreat into a cloud of smoke and congratulate each other on being masters of the universe."

"Do you want me to escort you back to the cabin?" Jim asked Carol.

She shook her head, "No, I'll stay here."

Leonard stood up, and Marcus asked, "Joining us, McCoy? You don't want to stay out here with the women, do you?"

"No thanks. I'm heading back."

"Ah," he said, and turned to Scotty.

"Probably best. It'll be all business. and politics, that sort of thing. Wouldn't interest you. Good of you to come," Frank said, and patted him on the shoulder. Frank and the other gentlemen exited towards the Smoking Room.

"Do you have to go?" Jim asked, standing. He didn't smoke, so he was probably just going to wait around with the women for a little while longer, or until Carol got tired and wanted to go back early.

"Time for me to go row with the other slaves," he said with a chuckle. Jim grinned a little, but he didn't want Bones to go.

Leonard offered his hand to shake, and when Jim took it, he slipped a tiny folded note into his hand. Winona watched disapprovingly, not fond of her son's new friend, or what she suspected might be going on. She wasn't blind, or stupid. She knew her son. She knew him _very well_.

Jim watched Leonard make his way out of the saloon, taking a few glances backwards as he went. As soon as he was out of sight, Jim glanced around quickly, and unfolded the paper in his hand, reading the messy scrawl.

'Make it count. Meet me at the clock.'

\---

Jim stepped into the A Deck foyer, and stood in front of the Grand Staircase. He looked up, and took a deep breath, stepping up towards Leonard. Leonard was on the landing a few steps above, leaning in the railing, turned towards the clock.

As Jim stepped up towards him, he turned, and grinned. Jim couldn't help but grin back.

"Interested in seeing a real party, kid?" Leonard asked, with an eyebrow raised, and the hint of a smile on his lips.

\---

The party was wild. The room was alive with music, laughter and dancing. An ad hoc band was playing next to a piano, honking out lively stomping music on fiddle, accordion and tambourine. People of all ages were dancing, drinking beer and wine, smoking, laughing, even brawling, all in good fun.

Jim was laughing, a pretty Irish girl in his arms. Her vibrant red hair was loose over her shoulders, the curls not even trying to be tamed. Gaila, as she'd said her name was, was laughing too, being spun around by him across the floor, which was full with other people, everyone moving to the lively Irish music. He dipped her, and pulled her up, just in time for her to catch the eye of another partner.

She was the third girl he'd danced with, Bones watching with intense, dark eyes, from a little table across the room. He was finishing a full glass of beer, seemingly amused at Jim. Jim grinned at him. Next to Leonard was Pavel and Hikaru- he'd introduced them earlier- who were drunk and laughing, attempting to arm wrestle through their giggles.

"C'mon Bones! Dance with me!" Jim yelled over the music and noise, attempting to pull Leonard up.

He shook his head, "I don't dance, Jim."

"You invited me to this thing, c'mon, show me how to really dance!" Jim whined. Leonard could feel himself reluctantly giving in.

Pavel said, leaning over to him, "Yes, Leonard, show him!"

Bones shook his head, chuckling, and took a swig of beer, handing the glass to Pavel, who was laughing and clapping. He pulled himself up and stepped over to Jim, taking his hand, pulling him onto the throngs of people dancing.

"C'mon, we've gotta get closer," he said, and Jim's eyes widened, and Bones pulled him closer, to where their chests were flushed together. Leonard grinned at him, and started dancing to the Irish jig.

"I don't know how to dance to this!" Jim said.

"Neither do I, just wing it!" And they did- having a grand time.

Jim laughed as Hikaru and Pavel joined them, dancing around with their arms linked, and as they started a line of dancing around the room. "Come!" Pavel said, waving, and grabbed a hold of Jim's arm pulling him along.

"You're not getting away!" Jim laughed, pulling Leonard's arm, who reluctantly went along. He refused to admit he was having fun.

A little while later, sweaty and exhausted, Jim and Leonard stopped  at one of the tables where a few Swedes were, and Leonard grabbed them a couple of beers, before the men had a chance to knock them over, arm wrestling. Jim took one from Leonard's hand, and started to chug it. Leonard, who had only taken a swig, had to look twice. Slamming the glass down on the table, as the men yelled out in triumph, Jim grinned wickedly, "What? You think a first class kid can't drink?"

Leonard grinned, shaking his head. He was about to say something, when a man was pushed into Jim, knocking him over, and into Leonard's arms.

They didn't look towards the steps, or else they might have seen Jim's stepfather sneaking down the stairs to look for where his stepson had gone. They might have seen his eyes narrowing at Jim laughing in Leonard's arms where he caught him. They might have seen the suspicion on his face.

\---

It was early Sunday morning, April 14, the sun falling in the private promenade. Jim and his parents were having breakfast in silence, Carol and her father were eating elsewhere. The tension was palpable. Uhura, in her maid uniform, poured coffee, and left the family, heading inside.

Winona bit into her toast daintily, like everything she did. She was sitting up straight, looking at him pointedly when he yawned.

He covered his mouth, "Sorry, Mother, I'm tired."

"Yes. Your exertions below decks were no doubt exhausting," Frank said, putting his cup of coffee down on the table.

"I see you have resorted to following me," Jim said stiffly.

"You will never behave like that again! Do you understand?" Frank said tightly. Winona's grip tightened on her teacup.

Jim looked down, swallowing, then looked up, eyes hard, and said with gritted teeth, "I'm not one of your servants to- to command, I'm your stepson-"

Frank said, "My- my stepson," then stood up, exploding. "You are my _son_ by law and you will honor that!" in a rage, he knocked the china from the table, making Jim and Winona flinch, "And you _will_ do as I say!" He knocked the wicker table over, with the remainder of their breakfasts with it, stepping into Jim's space, leering over him, as Jim pulled back, wide eyed, "You will honor me, you will honor me as a son honors his father! I will not be made out a fool!" he yelled, and Jim shrank back in his chair. Frank said more calmly, "Is this in any way unclear?"

Jim shook his head, "N-no."

Frank pulled back, "Good," he said gruffly, walking away. "Winona," he commanded, and she rushed out of her chair to follow him.

Jim stayed in his chair, motionless, staring blankly at the wall until Uhura rushed over, bringing the organ he juice, and started to pick up the shattered pieces of china. He got on his knees to help her and said, "We- we had an accident," he said, shaken. "I'm sorry Nyota, let me help you-" he started to pick up the carnation from the broken vase.

Uhura pushed him back gently, and said, "Mr. Kirk- Mr. Kirk, it's alright-" but he was still trying to pick up the pieces. "Jim!" she said a little louder, and he stopped, looking at her. She sighed, and said, "Mr. Kirk, you should change before the service this morning." She gestured to his clothes. He looked down, and coffee was spilled down his white shirt.

\---

A short while later, after Janice was fetched to finish cleaning the mess, Uhura was helping Jim pick out a suit in his room. She was laying it on his bed when Winona came in, giving her a sharp look, and said, "Tea, Nyota."

She bowed her head, "Yes, miss," and left the room. Winona walked over to the bed, and looked down at the suit. Without looking at Jim, she said, "You are not to see that boy again. Do you understand me, James? I forbid it!"

"Oh, stop it, Mother. You cannot decide who my friends are."

Winona looked at her son sharply, pulling him up by his arm, forcing him to look her in the eye, even though he was much taller than her, "James, this is not a game! Our situation is precarious. You know the money's gone!"

"Of course I know it's gone. You remind me every day!" Jim said, looking his mother in the eye, biting out his words.

"Frank has drunk and gambled your father's money away, James, hidden by a good name. And that name is the only card we have to play."

"Then why don't you divorce him-" he said, and grabbed her arm. She winced and pulled back. His eyes widened, and released her, as she rubbed her forearm. Softer, he said, "Why didn't you divorce him, mother?"

"I can't!" she whispered furiously, "After the scandal of your brother leaving and marrying that- that maid! Society wouldn't stop talking about it for weeks!" she said, gripping his arm, pleading for him to understand. "We would never have survived, the scandal would have ruined us!"

Jim ripped his arm away. "Don't put this on me."

"I don't understand you," Winona said, turning away from him, "It is a fine match with Carol, and it will insure our survival."

"How can you put this on my shoulders?" Jim looked at her, hurt and unsure. "Why are you being so selfish?"

Louder, Winona said, turning to Jim, " _I'm_ being selfish?" she lowered her voice and said, meeting Jim's eyes, and he could see the naked fear in them. "Do you want to see me working as a seamstress? Is that what you want?" she asked, her voice almost breaking, "Do you want to see our fine things sold at an auction, our memories scattered to the winds?" she said, her eyes filling with tears. She turned away, covering her mouth. She took a moment to silently compose herself.

"It's so unfair," Jim said softly.

"Of course it's unfair," Winona said, turning to her son, "The choices I must make are never easy."

She stepped over to him and kissed him on the cheek before leaving him to get dressed.

\---

Taking a tour of the ship- given personally by Captain Pike and Mr. Scott, Jim and his parents, along with Marcus, stood in the bridge, looking around with interest as Pike told them the reasoning behind two steering wheels. Carol had elected to stay in the stateroom.

A young officer came up next to Pike and handed him a Marconigram, "Another ice warning, sir. This one from the 'Nordic.'"

"Thank you, Sparks," he said. Pike glanced over the message, then nonchalantly put it in his pocket. He nodded reassuringly to the group.

"Oh, not to worry, it's quite normal for this time of year," he smiled, "In fact, we're speeding up. I've just ordered the last boilers lit."

Scotty scowled at that.

\---

Leonard looked between the bars of the upper deck's railing, making sure the decks were empty, before hoisting himself up and over the railing. No one had seen him.  Passing a few deck chairs, he noticed a coat and hat laying on one of them and grabbed them, to make himself seem more like he belonged.

A few feet ahead of him on the decks, walking with the tour, Jim was alongside Scotty, his parents strolling arm in arm a few feet ahead, and Marcus discussing aspects of the ship with the captain.

"Mr. Scott-"

"I told ye to call me Scotty, didn't I?"

"Scotty-  I did the sum in my head, and with the number of lifeboats times the capacity you mentioned... forgive me, but it seems that there are not enough for everyone aboard."

Scotty turned to Jim, and smiled, shaking his head, "About half, actually. Jim, you miss nothing, do you? In fact, I put in these new type davits," he gestured to the lifeboats, "which can take an extra row of boats here. But it was thought... by some... that the deck would look too cluttered. So I was over-ruled."

Frank, who had stopped along with them, while Marcus and Pike carried on ahead, tapped the life boat with his cane, snorting, "Waste of deck space as it is, on an unsinkable ship!"

They carried on, as Scotty said, "I've built ye a good ship, lad, strong and true." Then, to the rest of the party, "the next stop's the engine room!" as Jim trailed behind. A man grabbed his shoulder, and Jim whirled around to see Leonard.

He motioned for Jim to follow him, and shut the door behind them as they ducked into the gymnasium, incredibly modern exercise machines littered around the room.

Jim turned from him, "Leonard, this is impossible. I can't see you."

Leonard took him by the shoulders, "Jim-" he ran his hand through his hair, "I have to talk to you."

"Bones- I can't- I'm getting married!" he threw his hands up, "I love Carol!" he said, in a last attempt to deter Leonard 

"Jim, you're no picnic, you're a spoiled kid, but- but underneath that you're-"

Jim leaned back, "Even worse?" he muttered.

Bones jerked him up to where their eyes met, and said, "No! That's what I'm talking about- you don't see it do you?" he shook his head, "They've stamped it right out of you- you can't see that you're- you're better than all of them, you're smart, and strong, and the most amazing man-" He tried to break free from Leonard's grip, but Leonard held his gaze steady, "Jim, let me finish. You're amazing... and I know I have nothing to offer you, Jim. God, I know that. But I'm involved now. You jump, I jump, remember? I can't turn away without knowin' that you're goin' to be alright."

Jim's mouth was open, and his eyes were almost watery. Leonard was so open and real, unlike anyone Jim had ever known, so concerned with jewelry and appearances and-

He shook his head, "Well I'm fine. I'll be fine. Really," he said.

"Really?" Leonard asked, looking him straight in the eye again. "I don't think so. They've-" he pointed in the direction his parents had gone, "got you trapped, Jim. And you're gonna die if you don't break free- maybe not right away, because you're strong... But," their faces were mere inches away, and Leonard reached up to touch Jim's face, "sooner or later that fire that I love about you, Jim, that fire's gonna burn out."

They held their gaze for a moment, before Jim swallowed, and pushed Bones away. "It's not up to you, Bones."

"Jim-" Leonard called out, reaching for him.

"I'm going back. Leave me alone," Jim said, ignoring the tears he was biting back, or the hurt look on Leonard's face.

\---

It was nearly dusk, and Leonard was on the bow of the ship, leaning over, watching as it barreled towards the horizon. "Hello, Leonard," he heard a voice from behind him, and he turned to see Jim standing there, smiling.

"What made you change your mind?" Leonard asked as he stepped towards him.

"At tea- _tea_ \- there was a little girl and she was trying so hard to please her mother and I realized that was me, that had always been me. I never had a chance to be _me_ before I met you," Jim shook his head smiling. "They said you might be up here-"

"Shh," Leonard said, and held out his hand. Jim took it, "Now close your eyes. Go on, do it." And Jim did. "Now, step up here, and hold on to the railing," Leonard said, leading him. "Don't peak," he said, close to Jim's ear.

"I won't," Jim said, almost laughing, the wind blowing in his face.

"Now step up onto the railing, there you go-" Leonard said as Jim stepped up onto the railing, Leonard shortly after him, his feet just on the outside of Jim's. "Do you trust me?"

Jim said it without pause. "I trust you."

Leonard pressed Jim gently into the railing, then he took his two hands and raised them until he was standing with his arms outstretched on each side. Jim was going along with him. When he lowered his hands, Jim arms stayed up, almost like wings.

"Okay, open them," Leonard said, his lips brushing against Jim's ear.

Jim gasped- there was nothing in his field of vision but water. It was like there wasn't a ship under them at all, just the two of them soaring. The Atlantic unrolled toward him, copper under a dusk sky.

"We're flying!" Jim gasped, almost laughing. Leonard's arms were wrapped around Jim's waist, his head resting on his shoulder. After a few moments, Leonard brought his hands up, and laced his with Jim's, pulling them back to Jim's waist.

Jim turned his head, to see Leonard was looking at him, only a few inches between their mouths. Jim closed the distance, something he'd been wanting to do since he met him. They kissed, slowly and tremulously, and then with building passion.

\---

_The memories faded into a real picture of the bow of the ship, hundreds of feet below on the ocean floor. Jim- the hundred year old Jim- turned towards the group that was listening with rapt attention._

_"That was the last time Titanic ever saw daylight," Jim said softly, shaking his head. He towards them, all watching him. His granddaughter was looking at him with something akin to melancholy._

_"So we're up to dusk on the night of the sinking. Six hours to go," Brock said, changing the tape in the recorder._

_Bodine walked forward, shaking his head, "Incredible. There's Pike, he's standing there with the iceberg warning in his fucking hand, and he's ordering more speed."_

_Brock looked up at him, "Twenty six years of experience working against him. He figures anything big enough to sink the ship they're going to see in time to turn. But the ship's too big, with too small a rudder... it can't corner worth shit. Everything he knows is wrong." He shook his head._

_Jim was ignoring the conversation, staring at the monitor with the tape of his stateroom..._

\---

Jim laughed as he let himself and Leonard in, "It's quite proper, I assure you. This is the sitting room," he shrugged off his jacket, shutting the door behind them. Leonard looked around the room, overwhelmed by the opulence of it all. He set his sketchbook and drawing materials on the marble table, when Jim said, "Will this light do?"

"What?" he said, jerking his head up from looking at the ornate fixtures in the room.

"Don't artists need good light?" Jim asked, draping his jacket over the edge of sofa.

"I'm not used to working in such... horrible conditions," Leonard said teasingly, in a heavy southern drawl.

Jim walked over to the large green safe, and dialed the combination. Leonard looked around the room, and asked, "Should I be expecting anyone back anytime soon?"

"Not as long as the cigars and brandy hold out," Jim snorted. The safe opened with a _clunk_ and Jim pulled the velvet case out. The case containing what he considered the personification of his entrapment. He pulled the necklace out and held it out to Leonard.

He took it and looked at it in the light, and whistled. "What is it? A sapphire?"

"A diamond. A very rare diamond, called the Heart of the Ocean," Jim said, coming up behind him, resting his chin on Leonard's shoulder.

"Bones, I want you to draw me like your French girls," Jim said, turning to be facing him. "Wearing this."

"Alright," he agreed, looking the jewel over, not seemingly paying Jim any attention.

"Wearing _only_ this."

Leonard nearly dropped the necklace. "What?" He looked to Jim, who had a grin on his face.

\---

Leonard rearranged the room to be more to his liking, moving one of the small sofas to the middle of the room, directly in front of his chair. His utensils were laid out on the table, and he was sharpening one of his pencils, when Jim walked out in a sheer robe.

"The last thing I need," Jim said, walking over to Leonard, who couldn't take his eyes off of him, "Is another portrait making me look like a porcelain _doll_." He tossed a dime to Leonard, who was leaning back in the chair, and said, "As a paying customer, I expect to get what I want."

Jim took a step back, and meeting eyes with Leonard, almost made a show of slipping off the robe. He stood there, completely naked, and Leonard almost looked more nervous than he did.

Leonard looked at him for a moment before pointing to the couch, and said, "Over there."

Jim laid out on the couch, and said, "Tell me when it looks right to you."

"Uh... just bend your left leg a little and," he said, directing Jim. "Put your arm back where you had it, and the other one like this," he demonstrated, "and lower your head. Eyes to me. That's it."

And he started sketching. The outline of his broad chest, his hands, his handsome face. Jim could hear the soft scratches made by the piece of charcoal against the paper, dark eyes glancing at him over the top of the sketch pad.

"So serious," Jim teased, and it loosened Leonard up a little bit, glancing at him with intense eyes. "I believe you are blushing, Mr. Big Artiste. I can't imagine Monsieur Monet blushing."

Leonard laughed, "He does landscapes."

\---

_"My heart was pounding the whole time. It was the most erotic moment of my life... up till then at least," Jim said, shaking his head a little, remembering it fondly._

_The semi circle of listeners stared in rapt, frozen silence. The story of Jim and Leonard had finally and completely grabbed them._

_"What, uh... happened next?" Bodine asked._

_"You mean, did we 'do it?'" Jim said, and the listeners chuckled. "Sorry to disappoint you Mr. Bodine. Leonard was very professional."_

\---

Jim leaned over Leonard's shoulder, once again wearing the robe, as Leonard wrote the date next to his messy signature. He looked the picture over one last time, and blew on it to remove any lingering dust, and closed the leather portfolio, handing it to Jim. He took it, and said, "Thank you," before kissing Leonard deeply.

He pulled away, and walked over to a table, and wrote something on a piece of Titanic stationary. He handed the jewel case to Leonard, and said, "Put this in the safe for me, will you?" Leonard nodded and walked over to the safe as Jim finished the note.

\---

Leonard stepped into the sitting room from the promenade, rubbing his hands, saying, "It's getting cold out there," as Jim stepped into the room, fully dressed. "You look nice."  

"Jim?" Frank's harsh voice called from outside as he unlocked the door, startling the two younger men.

"Hurry!" Jim said, grabbing Leonard's hand, pulling him towards one of the back rooms.

"My drawings!" Leonard said, turning around.

"No time!" Jim whispered, and shut the door softly behind them. Frank, already in the room, heard the click, and turned towards it, as the two of them opened another door and stepped into the hall.

The walked quickly, side by side, down the hall, glancing at each other. Jim glanced back, to see Frank step out into the hall and see them. He turned to Leonard and grabbed his hand, laughing, "C'mon!"

They broke into a run, surprising the few ladies and gentlemen walking about. Jim lead him past the stairs to the bank of elevators.

They ran into one, yelling, "Wait, wait!" shocking one of the operators.

"Down, down, quickly!" Jim said to to the man as Leonard shut the gate. They started slowly down as Frank ran up and slammed his hands on the closed gate, furious. Jim looked to Leonard, and then to Frank, and flipped him off. "Bye!" Jim called, before breaking into laughter.

Tumbling out of the elevator, Leonard ran into a man, and laughing, he apologized, and grabbed Jim's hand, pulling him down the hall. They ran down a set of stairs and knocked over a cart of silver, and then ducked into another corridor.

Gasping with laughter, they collapsed against the wall, catching their breath.

"Pretty tough for an old man, this fella," Leonard said, panting, with a grin. "More like a cop."

"I think he was," Jim said with a giggle. Leonard flashed him a grin before raising his head in time to see Frank through the window in the door.

"Shit-" he said, "C'mon!" and pulled Jim after him. They ran down the corridor, nearly knocking a man over, and then ran into a dead end.

"In here!" Jim said, and then ran into a room behind an unmarked door. Leonard locked the door behind them- and just in time, there was a banging on the door only seconds after. "Now what?" Jim yelled over the loud noises coming from below.

"What?" Leonard yelled with his hands over his ears, mirroring Jim. He turned around and looked down the open hatch which heat and a red glow were coming from.

He looked up at Jim, who shrugged, and started climbing down. When they reached the bottom of the ladder, they dropped into the boiler room next to a worker, roaring furnaces and black figures moving in the smoky glow.

"What are you two doin' down here? It could be dangerous!" he said in a thick accent. Leonard and Jim exchanged glances, and ran. They ran the length of the boiler room, dodging amazed stokers, and trimmers with their wheelbarrows of coal.

Finally they reached the end of the room, and ducked into a corridor, which lead to the cargo hold. The room was piled high with crates, and in the middle of the room, a brand new Renault touring car, lashing down to a pallet.

Jim climbed into the plushly upholstered back seat, acting very royal, while Leonard stepped up into the driver's seat, enjoying the feel of the leather and wood. Jim leaned forward and pushed the window separating the passengers and the driver down, and leaned forward.

Leonard honked the horn, and said, "Where to, sir?"

Jim leaned in, close to his ear, and whispered, "To the stars." And grabbed his arm, tugging him into the back with him. Once in the back seat, Leonard put his arm around Jim, and Jim latched onto the lapel of the stolen coat, which Leonard was still wearing.

They were just looking at each other, when Leonard asked, "You nervous?"

Jim shook his head slightly and laced their fingers together, squeezing his hand, before looking up at Leonard with his impossibly blue eyes and saying, "Put your hands on me, Leonard." And he did. He had such fine hands, an artist’s hands, but strong too... roughened by work. Jim would remember their touch even after all that time. Then, Leonard was kissing Jim and lowering them down onto the seat.

\---

The car was fogged, and both of them were sweaty and panting, hair damp and plastered to their faces. Jim reached up and touched Leonard's face, and pulled him down for another deep kiss. Their clothes were littered all over the car, and Leonard's overcoat was pulled over them like a blanket.

Leonard pulled back, and they looked at each other wonderingly. He lowered his head to Jim's chest, and mumbled, "I can hear your heart beating."

Jim snorted lightly, and wrapped his arms around Leonard's head gently, hugging him to his chest.

\---

Back in the stateroom, Frank angrily opened the safe to see if anything was missing. Opening the safe with a _clunk_ he started to pull things out, when he pulled out an unfamiliar leather pad.  

Marcus, walking by, paused, and said, "Frank? Is there something you're looking for?"

"No," Frank bit back, "This is business between Jim and I."

Marcus shrugged, and walked out to the promenade.

Frank flipped open the portfolio, to see the drawing of Jim wearing the necklace. The note in with it said, "Now you can keep me locked up in the safe."

Frank's blood boiled, that ungrateful bastard- the papers crumpled in his hands, and he barely stayed himself from ripping them into shreds. He had a better idea.

\---

They stumbled out, into the cold night air, fully dressed, through a crew door onto the deck. They could barely stand, they were laughing so hard, slipping on the icy floor

They pulled themselves together, Jim bracing himself on Leonard's arms as they calmed down. Jim stepped closer, and brought his hand up to Leonard's face, suddenly looking at him with a serious expression. He was just about to ask him what was wrong when Jim said, "When the ship docks, I'm getting off with you."

Leonard sucked in a breath, searching Jim's eyes, "That's crazy."

Jim laughed, "I know. But that's why I know I have to do it."

Risking a kiss in the open, Leonard leaned forward, pressing his to Jim's frantically. A few moments later, still in each other's arms, a giant shadow loomed next to them, and they could feel the ship turning.

They looked to the side in time to see a wall of ice, taller than the highest mast, brush against the side of the ship, making a high pitched whine, the sound of ice scraping against the hull. "Step back!" Leonard said, pulling Jim behind him as they stepped back from the side of the ship, large chunks of ice falling around them. As it passed, they ran to the railing, practically hanging over as they looked over the side to see the ice scrape up against the rest of the ship.

\---

Pavel was leaning on Hikaru's shoulder, a little drunk and giggling as they stumbled through the corridors back to their room, when they heard a sound like the greatly amplified squeal of a skate on ice, and a rocking of the ship that knocked them over. A small flood of icy water rushed in, barely up to their ankles, but they were suddenly sobered up.

"What was that?" Pavel asked, clutching Hikaru, who was just as frightened and wide eyed.

"Do not know," he said, "We will find out," he said, taking Pavel's hand and leading them towards their room.

A man in his pajamas ran towards them, carrying his suitcase, and in a heavy Irish accent said, "I'm gettin' out of here!"

Looking between themselves, they took off after him. A crowd of people carrying their belongings had started heading out. Following the Irishman, who was following a trail of days, they headed towards the stairs. The man said, "If this is the direction the rats were runnin', it's good enough for me."

\---

Jim and Leonard ran up the steps to the locked gate, climbing over it, next to a couple of young men watching over the deck.

A moment later Captain Pike rounded the corner, followed by Scotty and Carpenter Hutchinson. They came down from the bridge by the outside stairs. The three men, their faces grim, crushed right past Jim and Leonard.

The three were having a conversation that neither Jim nor Leonard could hear, but they caught an 'eight compartments flooded' and as the three neared them, Pike said,  "Can you shore up?"

"Not unless the pumps get ahead," Hutchinson said.

"You've seen the damage, Captain," Scotty said, shaking his head as the party started down the stairs, "I cannae change-"

"This is bad, kid," Leonard realized, the two of them watching the party descend.

"We have to tell Mother and Carol," Jim said.

"Now it's worse," Leonard sighed.

\---

Jim and Leonard rounded the corner, not really touching as they crossed the foyer to the room. Frank was waiting him the hallway. Jim nearly stopped, whispering, "Oh no," under his breath, nearly stopping, but he didn't. As they approached, Frank stepped over to them, and Jim bristled.

"Jim," Frank said angrily, seizing a hold of his collar.

"Hey!" Leonard growled, before Frank dropped Jim, pushing the two of them towards the room. They didn't notice when Frank slipped something into Leonard's pocket.

"What's going on?" Jim asked, when he entered the room. Carol was in her sleeping clothes and a robe, as was his mother, although Marcus and Frank were fully dressed. Nyota was there, still up and her uniform, although rubbing her eyes. But they weren't alone. Along with the families in the sitting room, the Master at Arms and two stewards were standing there.

Marcus, who was leaning against a table sighed, resigned, "Apparently we've been robbed."

Jim frowned, "What? What's been taken?" He looked around.

Marcus nodded towards Carol, who was sitting on the couch, almost pouting, her arms crossed on her chest, "Carol's necklace. The diamond."

"What?" Jim stopped, "How can that be? I just saw it!"

He shook his head, "I don't know."

"But- forgetting that," Jim waved his hand, "something serious has happened!"

"It has," Frank said, "two things have disappeared tonight, and now that one of them has returned, I think I know where to find the other," he nodded in Leonard's direction, "Search him."

"Now what?" Leonard protested as the two stewards frisked him.

"C'mon, coat off, sir," one said, removing the cost.

"What are you doing?" Jim frowned, stepping forward. "We're in the middle of an emergency and you-"

"Is this it?" the steward asked, pulling the Heart of the Ocean out of Leonard's pocket, much to both men's surprise.

"This is horseshit!" Leonard protested angrily. The men stepped up behind him, and put the cuffs on his wrists. "Don't you believe it, Jim!"

"Bones?" Jim said, uncertain. He looked at him, with hurt in his eyes, searching Leonard's. "But- he couldn't have- I was with him the whole time..." Jim trailed off, almost childlike, the betrayal evident.

"Maybe he did it while you were putting your clothes back on," Frank said low and cold, just to him.

Marcus was looking watching the exchange with sad eyes, shaking his head. "To think, we invited him here, and it was all a ploy..."

"They put it in my pocket!" Leonard protested.

"It's not even your pocket, son. 'Property of A. L. Ryerson,'" the Master at Arms read. "This was reported stolen today."

"I was going to return it!" Leonard scowled, looking to Jim, pleading, "I was going to return it, honestly, Jim-"

Jim felt utterly betrayed, hurt, and confused. He shrank away from Leonard, unable to look him in the eye.

The stewards started to pull him out of there, "C'mon, lad, there's a good boy-" as he started yelling.

"Jim, don't listen to them- I didn't do this- you know I didn't! Jim!"

He stepped back, sitting down, stunned, next to Carol, who patted his hand, "I'm not going to say anything about your choice of friends."

\---

There was a knock on the door, and Steward Barnes stuck his head in. "Sirs and Madams, I've been told to ask you to please put on your lifebelt, and come up to the boat deck."

Marcus nodded in confirmation, "We'll be there right away."

"Now please, dress warmly, it's quite cold out tonight!" the steward said as he shut the door behind him.

"I'll fetch them," Janice said, curtsying, and headed towards the closets in the back of the suits.

Winona sighed, and reached over to pat Carol's hand, "Come along dear, if it's so important we'd better get dressed." Carol stood up with her and they walked into her room, with Nyota in tow.

"Do you mind if I have a moment with my son, Alexander?" Frank said through his teeth.

Sighing, Marcus looked at the necklace dangling in his hand, and stuffed it into his pocket. "I'll go see about those lifebelts that maid went after," he said, stepping out of the room.

Frank stepped closer to Jim, who'd stood up, and was staring at him with defiance. Frank slapped him. It wasn't the first time he'd done it, either. Jim reeled back, stung.

"It is a little slut, isn't it?" Frank hissed, Jim's head tilted away from him. He seized Jim's shoulders, and said, "Look at me, you little-"

"Frank-" Winona called from the other room.

Frank yelled, "Not now!"

Marcus and the maid came into Frank's line of vision, both with arms full of life vests, both of them already wearing one. Frank released Jim, who'd began clutching his stinging cheek. Marcus handed one to Frank, who tossed it aside, and went after his wife, mumbling, "This is ridiculous."

Marcus handed one to Jim, who took it with his free hand, and then put a hand on Jim's shoulder.

"Don't worry, it's probably just a precaution," Marcus said, squeezing Jim's shoulder.

\---

"Goddamned English, doing everything by the book," Frank scowled, leading the party into the A-deck foyer, where most of the First class passengers were waiting in lively spirits, all wearing lifebelts. Jim was following the party like a sleepwalker, and he wasn't wearing a lifebelt.

"There's no need for language, dear," Winona said offhandedly as she pulled on a glove. As they stopped near the staircase, she said to the maids, "Go back and turn the heater on in my room, so it won't be too cold when we get back."

"Yes m'am," they said in unison, and turned back towards the room.

Scotty entered, looking around the magnificent room, which he knew was doomed. Jim, standing nearby, noticed his heartbroken expression, and walked over to him, grabbing his shoulder as he started up the steps. Scotty turned to him with an apologetic expression.

"Scotty- I saw the iceberg. And I see it in your eyes. Tell me the truth."

Scotty looked at him, and then said, "She'll sink."

Jim's eyes widened, although he didn't know if he was expecting anything else. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. In an hour or so, all this will be at the bottom of the Atlantic," he said. "Please tell only who you must, I don't want to be responsible for a panic. And get to a boat quickly. Don't wait," he said. Then lower, "You remember what I told you about the boats?"

It dawned on him, and he nodded slowly. "Yes, I understand. Thank you."

\---

In the Master at Arms' officer, the Master at Arms handcuffed Leonard to a water pipe as a crewman rushed in anxiously and almost blurted to the Master at Arms, "You're wanted by the Purser, sir. Urgently."

The man nodded to the crewman, and looked to Leonard, tightening the cuffs around his wrist, and said, "You behave now."

Leonard rolled his eyes and muttered, raising his wrists, "What else am I going to do?"

\---

In steerage, it was chaos, with stewards pushing their way through narrow corridors clogged with people carrying suitcases, duffel bags, children. Some had lifebelts on, others didn't.

The Irishman, Hikaru, and Pavel pushed past the stewards, going the other way. They reached a huge crowd gathered at the bottom of the main third class stairwell.

The stairwell was full of people, and all the gates were locked. A steward was talking over the crowed of people, "Stay calm, please. It's not time to go up to the boats yet.”

Hikaru looked at Pavel, and said, "What are we doing?"

Pavel shrugged, "I don't know. But we cannot get out. Should we go back to our room?"

Hikaru nodded, “It was nothing?” and they headed back to their cabin, where they fell asleep on Hikaru's bed, in each other's arms. The last time they would ever fall asleep.

\---

Boats were being lowered left and right, the upper decks filled with first class passengers all in their fine fur coats and lifebelts. "Steady, steady!" a steward yelled.

"Women and children! Ladies, please, step into the boat!" another yelled. "Women and children only! Sorry sir, no men yet."

"Come on, you heard the man. Get in the boat, sister," Molly Brown said, helping a woman get into the boat.

"Women and children," Jim said to Winona and Carol, "That means you two. Up you go."

"Jim, this is ridiculous, they'll just put us off in these silly little boats to freeze, and we'll all be back on board by breakfast-"

"CAROL!" Jim yelled, shocking her. Frustrated, he said, "Get in the boat now or _so help me god_. The ship is _sinking_ , you hear me? There isn't going to be a tomorrow for this ship- there isn't going to be any breakfast, okay?" he said softly. "I care about you, okay, and I need you to get on that boat, and take my mother with you. Don't let her say no. Go!" he said, almost pushing her. She- and the rest of the party- looked at him, shocked at his outbursts.

She swallowed, visibly shaken, and met his eye, nodding. She turned to Winona and said, "Come along, Winona, lets get in a boat."

"Go on, dear," Marcus prompted, kissing Carol on the side of the head. He looked sad, but Jim couldn’t tell what emotion was really on his face.

They stepped into the boat, and Winona looked up at Jim, with wide, frightened eyes. "Jim?" She turned to the steward, "He's a child, he's only just turned eighteen-" she said, and the man waved him in, but Jim took a step back. She looked at him looking incredibly fragile, "Jim?"

"I have to- I have to go-" he said, and turned to flee. Frank chased after him, grabbing his arm.

"Where do you think you're going? Off to be some street rat's whore?"

Jim struggled, and looked him in the eye, "I'd rather be his whore than your son," and elbowed him in the chest, breaking free.

He could hear his mother's screams of, "Jim! JIM!" as she was lowered down.

\---

"Scotty!" Jim yelled, as he ran into the first class corridor.

He spotted the man ducking into a stateroom, calling, "Anyone in here?"

"Scotty! Thank god!" Jim yelled, running up to him, breathless. "Where would the Master at Arms take someone under arrest?!"

"What? You have to get to a boat right away!"

"No! I'll do this with or without your help, Scotty. But without will take longer," he said, panting.

Scotty searched his eyes, and then said, "Aye, lad. You take the elevator to the very bottom, go left, down the crewman's passage, then make a right."

\---

Leonard sighed, and pulled at his cuffs again. He heard a trickling noise, and looked towards the door, where a steady stream of water was filling in from under the door. "Oh shit-" he said, and started frantically pulling at his cuffs.

\---

"Move move move!" Jim yelled and ran across A deck, not caring as he pushed people aside.

He ran up to the elevator, which was preparing to leave. The operator said, "Sorry, sir, lifts are closed-"

And without thinking, Jim shoved him into the elevator, and said, "I'm through with being polite, goddamnit! I may never be polite the rest of my life! Now take me down!" Shocked, the man complied. It took them a few moments, but they reached E deck, and suddenly ice water rushed through the iron gates and swirled around their legs.

They both screamed, the life operator saying, "We're going back up!"

"No!" Jim yelled, and waded out into the water, as the lift went up without him.

He mumbled the directions to himself as he waded through the water. Left, right, crew passages...

He turned around, everything looked the same- "Bones!" he yelled, heading in one direction. "Bones!"

"Jim!" he heard faintly.

"Leonard!" he cried.

"Jim! Jim, I'm in here!" Jim followed the voice, and finally found the room, stumbling over to Leonard and kissing him.

"Leonard, Bones, god, I'm so sorry!" he said, so happy to see him it was almost embarrassing.

"That guy Frank put it in my pocket!"

"I know, I know!" Jim said.

"See if you can find a key for these. Try those drawers. It's a little brass one."

Jim stumbled over to the case on the wall, "Brass, brass- these all all silver ones!"

"Check right here-" he kicked a desk that was floating across the room. Jim pulled out the only drawer and started digging through it, when Leonard said, "Jim-"

"Yeah?" he looked up.

"How'd you find out I didn't do it?"

"I didn't. I realized I already knew." Jim looked around. "There's no key. There's no key!"

Leonard looked at him calmly, "Listen, kid, you'll have to go for help."

Jim swallowed, "I'll be right back."

Leonard nodded, meeting his eye, "I'll be right here." Jim sloshed through the water, pushing aside a chair to get to him, and kissed him. Jim turned and rushed from the room.

The water in the hall was already waist deep, and Jim looked down the halls- the lights were flickering, the power was failing- and turned to the stairs. He ran up them, his clothes soaked.

"Hello? Somebody?" he turned a corner and ran along another corridor in a daze. "Help me! We need help!" He nearly sobbed, "Damn it."

He ran down another hall, and the ship groaned, the lights turning off. Jim sagged against the wall. The lights slowly came back on after a moment, and he pushed himself off the wall, and ran down another corridor, where a steward was rounding the corner.

He looked upset someone was still there, grabbing Jim's arm like he was a child, "Come on, then, let's get you topside, sir, that's right."

"No!" Jim protested, "Wait. Wait! I need your help! There's-"

"No need for panic, sir, Come along!" he was pulling Jim down the corridor, away from Leonard.

"No, let me go! You're going the wrong way!" Jim pulled. He wasn't _listening_.

He jerked his arm away, and punched the man in the nose. The man stumbled back, clutching his nose. He looked up from his bloody hand, and said, "To hell with you!" And fled.

Jim sank back against the wall, glancing in front of him, where he saw a fire axe. He smashed the case and grabbed the axe, running back down the hall.

When he reached the staircase, he stopped. The water was nearly to his head on the floor below, and lights were bursting. "Oh my god," he said to himself, and descended.

He let out a cry when he reached the water, it was freezing. He couldn't walk in that deep water, so he pulled himself by one hand on the rafters, until reaching the room Leonard was in. "Leonard!" he said.

"Jim!"

"Will this work?" Jim asked, holding up the axe. Leonard looked at it, and said, "I guess we'll find out." Leonard had climbed up on the floating desk, so he was completely dry. "You can do it, Jim. Hit it as hard as you can, I trust you," Leonard said, as Jim poised the axe over the metal cuffs.

Jim swung. Leonard closed his eyes- and so did Jim. With a clang, Leonard raised his hands- he was wearing two separate cuffs.

"Wh- you did it!" they laughed, and Leonard pulled Jim's head up and kissed him. "Let's go!" he said, dropping into the water. "Oh shit, shit shit shit that is cold! Come on, let's go."

Jim turned towards the staircase, but the water was much higher in that part of the hall- they couldn't get out that way. "But this is the way out!"

"We have to find another way!" Leonard said, taking Jim's hand.

\---

They burst through a locked door on an upper deck, nearly running into a steward, who chased after them, saying, "Here you! You'll have to pay for that, you know. That's White Star Line property-"

Turning together, they said, "Shut up!"

They ran past a crowded stair, where stewards still weren't letting people out. They were fighting them off, and Leonard took one look at it and ran past it.

"This way!" Leonard pulled them up a stairwell to another deck, stopping in front of a smaller, less crowded gate.

"I'm sorry, just go back to the main gate, it'll all be sorted out there-" a steward said, and someone banged on the gate, letting out a cry of frustration. "No, stop that!" he said.

Leonard looked behind them, and ran to the wooden bench that was nailed down. A couple of other men ran to help him. Understanding, Jim yelled, "Get back!" just as they ripped the bench up, and rammed it into the gate, knocking it over.

People started climbing over, and Leonard took Jim's hand as they followed.

\---

The group burst out onto the boat deck from the crew stairs just aft of the third funnel. They looked around at the empty davits, and Jim yelled, "The boats are gone!"

They looked around wildly, and Leonard ran up to the railing, stepping to get a better view, then Jim spotted Colonel Gracie chugging forward along the deck, escorting two first class ladies. He ran up to him, and said, "Colonel! Are there any boats left?"

He glanced down at Jim's bedraggled state, shaking his head, but said, "Yes, son, there are still a couple of boats all the way forward. This way, I'll lead you!"

As soon as they heard the confirmation Jim took Leonard's hand and they ran towards the front, brushing past the orchestra that had set up and was playing music to calm the passengers.

"Music to drown by. Now I know I'm in First Class," Leonard said sardonically, shaking his head.  

They reached the boat, which was nearly crowded over. The man was yelling, "Women and children! Women and children only!"

Leonard turned to Jim, "Get in the boat."

Jim shook his head, "I'm not going without you."

"Jim, listen," Leonard said, nervously glancing around. The entire front half of the ship was under water, slowly dragging the rest of the ship under with it. "You need to get in the boat."

"Yes, Jim, you should get in the boat," Jim heard a man to his right say.

He turned, "Admiral Marcus!" Jim said, surprised to see him.

"Hello, Jim," he said, with a tired smile on his face. "I see you got what you came for," he nodded in Leonard's direction.

Jim almost blushed, but he nodded. "Yeah."

"My god, look at you," he looked Jim over. "Here, son," Marcus said, shrugging out of his coat, and putting it on Jim's shoulders. Jim looked down and realized he wasn't wearing a coat- only his soaked through button down.

"Thanks," Jim said, pulling it on. He didn't realize he was freezing till right then. He hadn’t had time to worry about that before.

Leonard pulled him to the side, Jim's face in his hands, and looked him in the eye, "Go on, I'll get the next one."

"No, not without you," Jim said.

"I'm a survivor, I'll be fine!" Leonard said. "C'mon, Jim, get in the boat!"

Marcus leaned in, and said lowly, "There are boats on the other side that are allowing men in. Your friend and I can get off safely. Both of us."

Jim looked over to him, and Leonard said, "I'll be alright. Hurry up so we can get going... we got our own boat to catch."

Marcus turned to the officer letting people in the boat, "Let my son on, he's just a child," the man met his eye for a moment, but then waved Jim in.

He reached for Leonard, who grabbed his hand. Then Jim was pulled into the boat by an officer, saying, "Step aboard, son! And, lower away!"

Leonard and Marcus looked down at him, as Jim was being lowered down.

"Jim-" Marcus called, and Jim looked up, "tell my wife I love her."

"It'll be fine," he called, as he was lowered down. Jim looked up at Marcus, who had a particular look in his eye- one Jim hadn't recognized earlier- resignation. He'd resigned to this fate, and he was just happy knowing his daughter had made it out. There weren't any more boats.  

Still on the ship, watching Jim descend, Leonard said, "You're a good liar."

"Almost as good as you," Marcus said, but there was nothing like resentment in his voice. The man just sounded tired.

"There's, ah, no boats, are there?"

Marcus shook his head.

In the boat, Jim looked around, at the crying little girls next to him, to the man yelling, "Steady!" to the lowering ropes, and then back up at Leonard, as the flares burst in the sky behind him. They'd reached the level of A deck's promenade, a level lower than where he'd just gotten on the boat.

And he knew what he was going to do. He climbed across the women next to him, and hurled himself out of the boat to the rail of the A-Deck promenade, catching it, and scrambling over the rail, a couple of men helping him. Jim was back on the Titanic, and running, ignoring the outcries of the people on the boat, and Leonard's cry of, "Jim! No!" from above.

Leonard was running down to meet him, and Jim was running up, not caring as he ran into passengers and crew, and practically flung himself at Leonard as they met at the bottom of the grand stair.

"Jim!" Leonard cried and embraced him, kissing the top of his head frantically. Reluctantly he pulled back to make sure he was alright, "That was the stupidest thing you've ever done, kid!" and pulled him close again, holding him as tight as he could, frantically kissing him. "You're an idiot, Jim, a goddamned idiot!"

"I know, I know- but I couldn't leave you!"

"It's okay, we'll think of something!" Leonard kissed him again.

As they embraced, Frank stepped over to the railing above them, and looked down narrowing his eyes, he reached into his coat pocket, and ran along the rail and down the stairs. As he reached the landing above them he raised the gun, and in a rage, fired at the couple.

The carved cherub at the foot of the center railing exploded, and Leonard pulled Jim toward the stairs going down to the next deck. Frank stepped on the skittering head of the cherub statue and went sprawling. The gun clattered across the marble floor, and he got up, and reeling drunkenly went to retrieve it.

"Where did he get a gun?" Leonard yelled as they ran.

"I don't know!"

Frank fired again, running down the steps toward them. A bullet blew a divet out of the oak panelling behind Leonard's head as he pulled Jim down the next flight of stairs.

He fired again, pushing people out of the way, "Move!" once again missing, but making Jim cry out anyway. He fired down the spiral stair into the water below.

Jim and Leonard ran down the stairs two at a time and headed straight into the water, fording across the room to where the floor sloped up, until they reach dry footing at the entrance to the dining saloon.

Frank skidded to a stop at the landing, firing again, only this time missing by a few feet.

"Come on, move, Jim!" Leonard yelled.

Frank fired again, but they were already in the dining saloon, and the bullet simply lodged into the glass. He tried to fire again but it was empty, and he looked at the gun, wild eyed, and let out a cry of rage. The ship groaned, and water was bubbling into the room.

He slurred loudly, "Enjoy your time together!" before looking at the gun and throwing it into the water with an angry grunt.

"Come on!" Leonard said, as Jim glanced behind them and they ran through the kitchen and down a corridor, into lower halls. They stopped at the foot of the stairs, panting. They couldn't hear anything, but they were silent just in case.

"We can't go back up there," Jim said, and Leonard nodded.

"We'll have to go down." They ran into the hall, and down a corridor, but when they reached the end, Leonard yelled, "Not this way!" Water was straining against the door, and they ran in the opposite direction as the door burst.

They ducked into another hall with the rush of the water on their heels. The water surged forward and knocked them over, and Jim yelled, "Get into that hall!" tugging Leonard as they passed it, and pulled themselves against the water. They slopped up the stairs, their soaked clothes dragging them down.

The gate was locked. Jim slammed his fists against the gate, "Oh god, it's locked!"

Leonard tried pulling at it, to no avail. He looked behind them and the water was steadily rising. "Help!" he called out. "Is there anybody there?"

A steward ran by and started running up the stairs on the other side of the gate but they yelled, "Help! Please!" and the man paused.

"Bloody hell," he said, as if he couldn't believe he was stupid enough to stop, but did anyway, fumbling with the keys as the water rushed past his ankles.

"Come on! Come on!" Leonard said, the water rising even more quickly. A couple of seconds later, the water was nearing the lock.

He was still fumbling with it, when suddenly the gate gave and swung open. They were pushed through by the force of the water and made it to stairs on the other side of the landing, following the steward up to the next deck.

"Keep goin' up!" Leonard said as they ran up flights of stairs, and into the First Class, where they could see the effects of the Titanic sinking on one side, the tables and chairs were all sliding backwards. They ran across the room, Jim being pulled by Leonard. As they ran by the fireplace Jim stopped.

Scotty stood in front of the fireplace, staring at the large painting above the mantle. The fire was still going in the fireplace, and the room was empty except for the three of them. An ashtray fell off the table behind him. Jim recognized him immediately, and saw that his lifebelt was off, lying on a table.

"Wait, wait!" Jim said, and Leonard stopped, looking out the windows. "Mr. Scott."

"Oh, lad."

"You're not even going to try to make it, Scotty?" Jim said, stepping closer, but he could see that the light had gone from the man's eyes.

"I'm sorry I didn't build you a stronger ship, lad," Scotty said sadly. "She was my pride an' joy, she was."

"Come on, she's goin' fast," Leonard said, tugging on Jim's hand.

"Wait-" Scotty said, and stepped forward, handing his lifebelt to Jim. "Good luck to you, Jim."

"Thanks Scotty," Jim said, and hugged him, taking the lifebelt. As they ran through the revolving doors, Leonard looked back and gave him a nod.

\---

"Captain, Captain, sir!" an officer ran up to Captain Pike, trying to give him a lifebelt, but the captain brushed past him in a daze. He was too far gone and seemed to stare through him. Without a word he turned and walked onto the bridge. He entered the enclosed wheelhouse and shut the door. He was alone, surrounded by the gleaming brass instruments.

After a moment, First Officer Spock joined him, and when Pike looked up at him, Spock stood, back straight, hands behind his back, and said stiffly, "A good captain goes down with his ship. As does his first officer, sir."

The captain turned his blank stare back out over the sinking bridge, mumbling to himself, in a daze, "Yes, very good, sir."

\---

Jim and Leonard ran out of the Palm Court into a dense crowd. Leonard pushed his way to the rail and looked at the state of the ship. The bridge was under water and there was chaos on deck. People streamed around them, shouting and pushing.

"Okay... we keep moving aft. We have to stay on the ship as long as possible!" Leonard said over the noise. Jim nodded.

They ran to the end of A deck, climbing over the railing and dropping below. They joined the crush of people literally clawing and scrambling over each other to get down the narrow stairs to the well deck.

Seeing that the stairs were impossible, Leonard climbed over the B-Deck railing and helped Jim over. They pushed through the crowds towards the higher decks at the rear of the ship. Leonard shoved Jim ahead of him up the narrow well deck staircase, as a man walked dazedly ahead of them, mumbling, "Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death-"

"You wanna walk a little faster through that valley, fella?" Leonard barked.

Hundreds of people were already on the poop deck, and more were pouring up every second. Leonard and Jim clung together as they struggled across the tilting deck. The ship had tilted so far the propellers were raised in the air.

They ran over to the railing, where people were falling off screaming, and Leonard pulled Jim with him, up towards the top of the ship. "Come on!" he said, using anything he could to pull them upwards, ignoring Father Byles, who had his voice raised in prayer.

Pulling himself from handhold to handhold, Leonard tugged Jim aft along the deck. They made it to the stern rail, right at the base of the flagpole. They gripped the rail, jammed in between other people. It was the spot where Leonard pulled Jim back onto the ship, just two nights- and a lifetime- ago.

Jim looked around, "Bones," he chuckled, as the stern rose higher and higher, "this is where we first met."

Leonard looked at him for a moment, then pulled Jim up and kissed him roughly.

\---

"Hang on, Miss Nyota!" a man said as the ship rose higher, but she was torn from his hand, screaming as she slid down the deck hundreds of feet into icy water.

\---

People were climbing onto the top of the railing, some were falling off and landing in the water hundreds of feet below. Leonard and Jim were struggling to hole onto the stern rail. They felt the ship seemingly right itself as the ship was torn in two.

Everyone was screaming and holding on for dear life as the ship hit the water. It stayed there only briefly, as the bow was flooded with water, abruptly pulling the stern back up into the air. People were knocked loose from where they were holding on, and people tumbled down the deck.

"We have to move!" Leonard yelled, looking behind him. He climbed over the stern rail and reached back for Jim. He was terrified. Leonard held out his hand impatiently, "Jim!" he yelled, knocking him out of it. Jim took his hand and pulled himself over.

"What's happening, Bones?" Jim asked, looking over the ship as it stood almost fully upwards.

"I don't know!" he said, looking behind them at the ship's propellers. People were screaming and falling, bodies were piling up. "Hold on!" Leonard said. The ship wasn't moving, it was held upright, creaking and groaning and swaying a bit, but it didn't move.

Then it did. The stern started taking in water, below them the poop deck started to disappear. The plunge gathered speed, the boiling surface engulfed the docking bridge and then rushed up the last thirty feet.

"Hold on!" Leonard yelled.

"Oh god, oh god," Jim said as he watched the ship disappear.

"This is it. Take a deep breath and hold it right before we go into the water. The ship will suck us down. Kick for the surface and keep kicking. Don't let go of my hand. We're gonna make it, Jim. Trust me."

Jim nodded without looking at him, gripping his hand harder.

"Ready, ready, now!" Leonard said as the water rushed at them, and Jim sucked in a breath.

Then suddenly they were underwater and Jim couldn't breathe, he couldn't think, he couldn't do anything, the ship was pulling him under and the water was ice cold. It was like a thousand knives, and Jim was so glad he didn't jump that other night. He was pulled back to it all by Leonard's hand in his, and he was up close, trying to pull Jim to the surface.

Then Leonard was ripped from his hand, disappearing into a swirl of bubbles, and Jim could see anything, couldn't _breathe_. He kicked to the surface, inhaling, and exhaling with a, "Leonard! Leonard!"

He looked around wildly. People in the water were screaming and crying and swimming for their lives. They were splashing and Jim was still yelling for Leonard.

A man grabbed him from behind and dunked him under the water, trying to stay afloat himself, Jim yelling, "Leonard!"

"Jim!" he heard, and Leonard was swimming towards him. "Get off him!" he yelled, and punched him. The man let go, and Leonard yelled, "Swim, Jim! You have to swim!"

"It's so cold!" he said, gasping, following Leonard.

"I need you to swim!" he said. "C'mon, here, get on it," he pulled Jim over to the piece of intricately carved wooden debris. Jim tried to climb on it but he was so _tired_. "C'mon, Jim, you can do it," Leonard said, pushing Jim up as he pulled himself up by his arms.

Once Jim was mostly on top of it, Leonard tried to pull himself up as well, but when he climbed atop it started to submerge and tip over. "Stay on, Jim."

"Leonard," Jim said weakly. Jim laid on his stomach, water sloshing on and off the board, and Leonard moved to be face to face with Jim. They could see their breath in the cold night air.

"It's okay, darlin', it'll be alright now," he said, shivering. His lips were blue, and he was soaked to the bone. He was holding Jim's hand on the makeshift raft, and they turned to look when a steward started blowing his whistle. Jim wasn't much better off- he might have been worse, even. He couldn't stop shaking. "The boats will come back for us, Jim. Hold on just a little longer. They had to row away for the suction and now they'll be coming back," he said, making sure Jim looked him in the eye. Jim nodded shakily.

\---

He didn't know how long they floated there, but they were covered in frost, and Jim's face was as pale as chalk.

"It's getting quiet," Jim mumbled as best he could manage.

Leonard was letting out shaky breaths, "Just a... a few more minutes. It'll take 'em... a while to get the boat organized..." Leonard said. "I do-don't know about you... but I.. intend to write a strongly... a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about this," he said with chattering teeth.

Jim was barely awake. He was freezing, and he felt sluggish, slipping away, but he said softly, "I love you, Leonard."

Leonard looked at him for a moment, letting out shaky breaths, "Don't you do that," he growled. "Don't you say your goodbyes. Not yet, you understand me?"

"I'm so cold."

"Listen, Jim," he said softly. "You're gonna get out of here. you're going to make babies with that pretty gal of yours and watch them grow and you're going to die an old man, warm in your bed. Not here. Not this night. Do you understand me?"

Jim's eyelids drooped, and he said, "I can't feel my body."

"Jim," he said, nudging him, "listen to me. Listen. Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me." He having trouble getting the breath to speak. "It brought me to you. And I'm thankful, Jim. I'm thankful." His voice was trembling with the cold which was working it's way to his heart. But his eyes were unwavering. "You must do me this honor... promise me you will survive... that you won't give up... no matter what happens... no matter how hopeless... promise me now, and never let go of that promise."

"I promise," Jim managed.

"Never let go, hear me, kid?" he said, clutching his hand.

"I promise. I will never let go, Bones. I'll never let go." Leonard kissed Jim's hand.

He gripped his hand and they laid with their heads together. It was quiet then, except for the lapping of the water.

\---

Jim must have fallen asleep, because when he woke, it was in a frozen daze, to a light shining in his face. He was staring upwards at the canopy of stars wheeling above him. He was gasping for breath, his hair was frozen, and he was lying on his back on the makeshift raft, his hand still locked with Leonard's.

He could faintly hear a sound, as if someone was speaking through water, and their voice was distorted. He slowly turned his head to the side.

Then the lookout flashed his torch towards him and the light flared across the water, silhouetting the bobbing corpses in between. It flicked past his motionless form and moved on. The boat was fifty feet away, and moving past him. The men looked away.

Jim lifted his head to turn to Leonard.

"Leonard," he said, barely audible, smiling. He shook his arm, "Bones?" he pulled himself up a little. Why wasn't he responding? His smile was gone. "Leonard? Leonard?" Jim said, his voice cracking, rising panic in his chest. "Leonard, please, please just-" he sobbed, "please say something." Leonard's face was pale, his skin was as cold as ice, and ice was frozen on his beautiful lashes, and matted in his hair. His eyes were closed.

"Bones," he pleaded, shaking his arm, "Oh god Bones please don't be-" he sobbed. "Leonard!" he said, almost angrily. How could he do this to him- how could he- "There's a boat, Leonard," he said, tears in his eyes, clutching his hand. "Bones?" he said one final time, resting his head on their joined hands. The boat was getting away.

"Hello! Can anyone hear me?" the man on the boat called out.

Jim turned to Leonard, and released his hand, whispering, "I'll never let go, I'll never let go," as Leonard sank into the water, disappearing from Jim's sight. Jim sobbed.

Jim turned to the dead steward who'd been blowing a whistle before, and slid off the raft, making an effort to reach him. He did, and pulled the whistle from his body, and started to blow on it frantically.

"Come about!" the officer on the boat yelled, and it turned around, following the whistle.

\---

_Jim opened his eyes, and he was back again on the Kelvin, "Fifteen hundred people went into the sea when Titanic sank from under us. There were twenty boats floating nearby and only one came back. One," there were tears in Joanna's eyes. "Six were saved from the water, myself included. Six out of fifteen hundred." Everyone was watching in silence, the reality of what had happened eighty four years ago hitting them like it never had before. "Afterward, the seven hundred people in the boats had nothing to do but wait... wait to die, wait to live, wait for an absolution which would never come."_

\---

The Carpathia arrived near sunrise. It was greeted by cries and cheers, and one stone faced eighteen year old boy swaddled in blankets.

The deck of Carpathia was crammed with huddled people, and even the recovered lifeboats of Titanic. On a hatch cover sat an enormous pile of lifebelts.

The groups of survivors were grouped by class, and when they saw what Jim was wearing, they lead him to the First Class area. He sat on the ground for over an hour, simply staring out into the distance and sipping hot tea. He wasn't- he wasn't done grieving, but it hadn't quite hit him yet. It had been surreal- the whole affair, falling in love so easily, and then losing it all. Losing it all so young. He knew what his mother felt like every time she looked at him with those haunted eyes, when she couldn't bear to look at him because it might tear her heart from her chest, again.

Just as the sun properly rose, and the steward came around for his name for the list of survivors, Jim giving his name, Carol and his mother found him. Carol threw her arms around him, saying, "We thought you were dead!"

He hugged her back, it was so _nice_ to feel warm again.  "I know, I'm sorry."

With Carol latched onto him so tightly, Jim's mother hugged the both of them with tears in her eyes. She released them as quickly as she'd begun, straightening her overcoat.

"Daddy didn't make it," Carol said, tears welling up in her eyes once more. "He didn't make it off the Titanic. He said he would."

Jim patted her back slowly, "I'm sorry, Carol," he said tiredly, but genuinely, as she sobbed on his shoulder.

His mother looked at him, and patted her eyes with the corner of the blanket she'd been given, and said, "I thought I'd lost you too, like I'd lost your father. I couldn't handle that, Jim." She hadn't called him that in a long time.

"Frank's dead?" he said, although it was more of a question. She nodded.

"No one has seen him."

"Good," Jim said, resting his chin on the top of Carol's head. "That bastard didn't deserve to live."

He thought that she was going to tell him not to speak like that, but she let out a watery laugh, "He did not."

Jim smiled at her, and Jim settled him and Carol down on the floor, them sitting side by side, as his mother went to look for more tea.

"It's a pity we lost the Heart of the Ocean," she said, with a slightly stuffy nose, her head resting on his shoulder. "Mother will be devastated about Father, and she won't like having to go through all of those claims."

"Yeah, it-" Jim said, putting his hand in his pocket, where his fingers closed around a cold object. He finished slowly, what he had in his pocket dawning on him, "is."

She sighed against his shoulder, content to fall asleep that way, and as soon as he was sure she was asleep, he pulled the object from his pocket, and looked at it. It was the necklace. Somehow- he supposed when Marcus had given him the jacket- it had ended up in his pocket. He didn't know why he didn't tell her about it. She certainly didn't like the thing, but... there was something telling him not to. So he slipped it back into his pocket.

\---

Jim and Carol married in a late summer wedding, with their mothers watching over the ceremony. He didn't love her- not a first. She was a good friend, but he grew to love her, after his heart was done healing- not forgetting. They later had a son- David- and a granddaughter, Joanna.

\---

_"We never found anything on Leonard. There's no record of him at all," Bodine said._

_"No, there wouldn't be, would there? And I've never spoken of him until now, not to anyone," Jim chuckled, shaking his head. He patted Jo's leg, "I never even told your grandmother what really happened, but I did love her- I grew to love her, and you look so much like her," he patted her cheek, and she smiled at him with watery eyes. "But now you all know there was a man named Leonard McCoy," Jim smiled, "and that he saved me, in every way that a person can be saved." Jim looked down, sadly, "I don't even have a picture of him. He exists now only in my memory."_

\---

_That night, Jim walked, barefoot and in his pajamas, to the stern of the ship, clutching something very tightly in his hands. When he stepped up to the railing, he put his gnarly, weathered hands on the top bars, and his feet on the lowest one, and pulled himself up, closing his eyes. Allowing himself to feel like he did aboard the Titanic, young again._

_He opened his eyes, and looked over the water, opening his palm to reveal the diamond. It was just as beautiful as it was the day Marcus has shown it to him. He looked at it one last time and with a little, "Ah!" dropped it into the bottom of the ocean, where it belonged._

_He took a breath in, and felt- liberation. Absolution._

_Having told his story, and had the weight of that lifted from his shoulders, Jim drifted off..._

And there he was, back again on the Titanic, in all her glory. She was beautiful again, with bright lights and shiny brass.

He was dressed in his finest suit, walking towards the grand staircase, lit by a glowing chandelier, to where everyone was waiting for him. The music was vibrant then, the orchestra playing in the corner, and the room was populated by men in tie and tails, women in gowns. It was exquisitely beautiful. Everything he remembered.

The crowd of beautiful gentlemen and ladies turned as he descend toward them.

On his right was Captain Pike, First Officer Spock- standing next to Nyota Uhura, wearing a dress of red and beaded with black, instead of her maid uniform, looking beautiful and proud, like she always had. Scotty stood near them, smiling.

On his left were the two men Jim had met- Hikaru Sulu, grinning, regardless of what language he spoke, with his arm around Pavel Chekov, only seventeen but bright eyed and smiling. Gaila, the girl Jim danced with, finally got the finery she deserved, a vision in red to rival even her fiery locks. Janice Rand stood beside her, a blue gown to match the one of Carol's she always liked.

At the foot of the stairs, Admiral Marcus stood with Carol, looking just as young and beautiful as she had the day they stepped aboard the ship. She smiled at him knowingly, as if to tell him it was okay, he loved her once, and while she had been the love of his life- a life they shared together with children and laughter- she'd let go. She hadn't been his true love, and it was alright. She knew. And he loved her, he really did, he loved that about her, but his true love-

And there- dressed in the plain clothes they'd met in, but looking just as beautiful as the men and women wearing full cost and gown- standing with open arms, was Leonard McCoy. It took the air from Jim's lungs. His hair was tousled and his eyes were dancing with amusement, and he looked the same as when they kissed under the stars. He grinned at Jim, as if to say, 'What took you so long, kid?' and held out his hand to him as he stepped closer- and Jim took it, leaning forward to kiss him, finally coming home.

 


End file.
